Aesthetic pleasure, self-beautification and tendency toward being admired are among top female traits. But these traits have been misused in the west through decades so that woman has turned into a mere tool in the hands of profiteers and tycoons. French philosopher, Roger Garaudy, in his book "Warning to the Living", wrote, "Free economy in the western style is not for meeting the needs but for creation of needs in the market!

In 1960, James Walter Thompson, director of a huge advertising agency, announced that Americans should increase their consumption to 16 billion dollars annually to be able to produce rapidly. In terms of capitalist economy, more consumption for more production is the necessity of today's economy, for, if the produced commodities are not consumed there won't be the possibility of production development or economic development. German born Belgian economist, Ernest Mandel, wrote, "The wheels of production rotate so fast that the smallest hesitation in purchase, can shake the whole structure of economy. Therefore, to have further production, as the essence of economic development, people should be persuaded to consume as much as possible and that's why advertisement- better to say propaganda- is one of the basic pillars of development in the western style."

Since commercial advertisement is a phenomenon stemming from Humanist ideas, it can gain access to any means to reach the goal of more marketing and expansion of economic hegemony of companies and institutes. These are the advertisements whose natural use is to stimulate the audience for purchasing a specific commodity or service.

Commercial advertisements, aka propaganda, make use of every tool such as music, colour, exaggeration, lie and every other stratagem to achieve their objectives. However, the western propagandists have focused on sexual attractions for many decades to earn the most amount of money.

This has indeed been the onset of abusing woman as the main instrument for propaganda and absorption of customers. Edward Louis Bernays, Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, was among the first persons to use woman as the most effective tool in the field of propaganda.

Such an attitude has belittled woman into a mere commodity. There is nearly no billboard or TV ad in which a woman is not used to propagate a commodity through her beauties and coquetry. The western cinema and TV do their best to draw the most viewers via female physical attractions. Ample researches have revealed that in almost 50% of the propaganda women are shown as sexual objects. Studies have proved that women are demonstrated more nakedly than men: 20.8% women compared to 9.2% of men. A researcher by the name of Linder had studied the status of women in propaganda. She reported that when a woman is standing in an enticing way by a car, she is more seen as an appendix to the car rather than a consumer or maker of the car.

The expert of the program, Ms. Akhundan says, "There are certain bases for presence of women in commercial propaganda one of which is creation of a bond between woman and sexual attractions and enticement. This is a common method for western companies in which the body of a woman is the tool to attract men and women. This kind of propaganda is done with the purpose of selling the products and it is a prevalent method. This standpoint has caused women to pay attention only to outward embellishment and beauty rather than upgrading their spirit and humanity. These women will not be heedful of internal attractions. Certainly, those women who are pursuing outward demonstrations won't pay attention to formation of family and main functions of a woman in society. Instrumental usage of women will cause short-term and long-term harms in society. On the other hand, this will cause long-term repercussions such as improper education of a generation."

The western media, whose target is women and girls, very cunningly suggest that the female gender is a sexual object. It is even inculcated that they should consume more and more cosmetics and trendy clothes to be more successful in relations with the opposite sex and gaining his attention. A study on the memoirs of American girls for a period of one hundred years discovered that, in the past, the American girls were concentrated on education, decorum and preservation of their personality; but in the recent decades they have totally altered and been most engaged in their physical appearance to keep pace with what is in vogue as the factor of progress. The more regrettable matter is that all these indecencies are justified under the guise of freedom of women and their equal rights with men. If a woman wants to come to the public places in a modest way with her hair and body covered, her behavior will be dubbed as violation of freedom!!!

Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei lambasting the western policies against women, saying, "The move that the western material civilization has done towards the issue of woman is a grave and unforgivable sin whose consequences will not be compensated under any circumstances."

The Leader added, "When the structure of family is shaken in a society the problems of that society will be internalized and the western civilization, through the execution of wicked sexual laws, want it or not, will be doomed to fail and collapse."

Family is the center of great civilizations. As much as the family values are prone to disintegration, civilizations will be prone to disintegration, too.

Ayatollah Khamenei believes that the fall of civilizations is a gradual phenomenon like their emergence. And this is befalling the western civilization. The moral and social crises that western societies are grappling with will soon lead to their ultimate collapse and destruction. What women have achieved in recent decades may look dazzling but the question is: After this much of so-called individual and social freedoms, are the human dignity and status of women preserved? Has the western woman attained the calm and comfort she was looking for?

RM/SS