Speech Acts Study of Supreme Leader Letter to Youth in Europe and North America

Terrorist attacks in France and similar ones in some other Western countries brought about Iran’s Supreme Leader to write a letter to youth in Europe and North America to talk directly with them concerning such developments. He also invited them to study about Islam and Prophet’s life. In the meantime he emphasized on the right to religious freedom as one of the best evidences of their human rights. The main question from the perspective of rhetorical language and literary techniques is as follow: what is the basis speech act of this letter? To respond to this question the Searle theory of speech act has been applied. By relying on descriptive-analytical method, the literary eloquence of Supreme Leader letter has been analyzed. The most significant findings show that among speech acts of affirmative, persuasive, emotional, obligatory and declarative the speech act basis is affirmative in language of that letter. The reason lies behind is that in the text, the language is in service of Islam description and a clear image presentation of it for youth in Europe and North America.