Two weeks ahead of the Iranian presidential election, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has increased his criticisms of the policies endorsed by President Hassan Rouhani. A week after indirectly criticizing the president for suggesting that diplomacy had averted war, Khamenei criticized a United Nations education program that some conservative Iranian detractors say promotes gender equality.

“These are not things the Islamic Republic can carry on its shoulders and submit to them,” Khamenei said of Education 2030, which is a part of UNESCO's program to wipe out poverty through development. The program, which Iran endorsed in 2015, aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

Khamenei made clear that he viewed the program as a means for superpowers to impose their policies on other countries. “On what basis does a group that is supposedly international — which has certainly been infiltrated by great powers — have the right to decide what various countries, with different nationalities, different civilizations, with different histories and cultures, should do?” he asked.

“We know what we have to do in the field of education, morality and lifestyle; there is no need for this document,” Khamenei said. “For us to go and sign this document and quietly implement it, no — this is absolutely not permitted, and we have told the responsible institutions.”