Over the last few days the Indonesian media including Kompas, reported the plans of 3 million laborers from hundreds of thousands of companies in 40 industrial estates in Indonesia, to engage in a national strike from 28th October to 1st November 2013 due to the government’s failure to meet their demands for basic employment rights. This mass action is a result of the continuing struggle of the Indonesian people, including millions of women and children against the shackles of poverty under their repressive capitalist free-market system which also forces them to be exploited as cheap labourers. This is despite living in a land that is rich with resources and praised for its economic growth. More than 90% of labourers in sweatshop factories in Jakarta are women, 75% of whom experience violence in the workplace. In addition, 90% of them do not get the right to breastfeed their babies, resulting in malnutrition in their babies. This figure does not include women laborers working overseas, 4.2 million of whom work as maids, many under horrific conditions. What a tragic story for a wealthy nation! Millions of its women have been enslaved both at home and abroad. Furthermore, the annual report on Global Slavery Walk Index published by the Free Foundation a week ago revealed that at least 200,000 people are living in slavery in Indonesia.
In Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other parts of the Muslim world, millions of women also face heartbreaking levels of economic exploitation in their struggle to provide for themselves and their families due to failed capitalist and man-made economic systems that have generated mass poverty, and mass dehumanization of their women as economic goods. The exploitative nature of the Capitalist ideology has created a form of modern-day slavery for millions of women, children and the vulnerable across the Muslim world. Its materialistic, consumerism dominated values and culture have had an essential role in shaping selfish and exploitative mindsets amongst many employers obsessed with generating profit, as well as within the rulers of the Muslim world who constantly count the ‘economic gain ‘and’ benefits’ for every political policy and public service to its people, overriding all other values, including the honour of its women. How can hope ever be placed in this oppressive morally decrepit capitalist system, or the likes of the intellectually bankrupt secular and democratic ideals to provide a positive future for the women of Indonesia or any part of the Muslim world? These are the secular ideals that have failed outright in providing financial security or protection from exploitation for millions of women globally.
The millions of Indonesian female laborers as well as the millions of women facing economic exploitation across the Muslim world today will face an entirely different reality under the Khilafah system that has a credible, time-tested approach to tackling poverty as well as maintaining the dignity and wellbeing of women. The Khilafah State’s economic basis and its policies aim at the effective distribution of wealth to ensure that the basic needs of all citizens are fulfilled while also laying the foundation for sound economic productivity to challenge mass unemployment and enable individuals to secure luxuries. These policies will enable men to fulfil their obligation of providing for their families, while at the same time the state is obliged to provide for those women who do not have male relatives to maintain them. We call the women of Indonesia, Bangladesh, and across the Muslim world to support urgently the obligatory work for the re-establishment of the Khilafah that promises great rewards from their Creator سبحانه وتعالى. Thus the Khilafah State will transform them from an economic commodity to a dignified, protected, and respected human being – for in Islam the woman deserves no less.
The Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Wednesday, 25 Dhul Hijjah 1434 AH
30-10-2013
Issue No : 1434 AH /102