Sunday 10 February 2013, CNN and other news agencies reported that Saudi authorities arrested tens of women and five children after a protest occurred in Riyadh and Buraida. The women were demanding the release of relatives held as political prisoners for years without access to lawyers or trial, their charges were criticizing or opposing the Saudi regime. The arrest of women and children is a disgraceful act in which the regime attempts to silence any opposing voice against his authoritarian rule and for his tight grip on authority. According to Amnesty International, 28 women and children were arrested in the month of January last during a demonstration against the state in Buraida.

This authoritarian regime whose rule has become synonymous with oppression has once again exposed to the world that it has no red lines when it comes to preserving its throne, even if it means arresting women and children. How dare it arrest the innocent honourable daughters of this Ummah, whose dignity has been described by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم as more precious than all the treasures of the entire world! How dare it allow the men to arrest Muslim women! This disgraceful house of Al-Saud that masquerades itself deceptively as a custodian and implementer of Shariah has in truth exposed repeatedly its utter contempt for Islam that includes its unreserved subjugation of women, stripping them of their Islamic political, economic, and social rights. This latest action has once again demonstrated its total disregard of the high status that Islam affords women and obliges men in their treatment on this basis. What a farce that this state, appointed hand-picked women into the Shura Council this January hoping against hope to present a face of regime reform, while simultaneously detaining women who are fulfilling their political rights! Therefore, the hideous face of this regime cannot conceal its ugliness by such cosmetic change.

Such despicable acts against Muslim women develop the desire of Muslims in Saudi Arabia and world-wide to put an immediate end to this repressive regime and its ruling and look forward to the true Islamic leadership of the Khilafah State which safeguards Islam and its people. The Khilafah obliged by the laws of Islam to ensure women enjoy honourable lives and preserve all her rights. It is system whose priority does not lie in preserving the seats of power of rulers, kings, or political parties but rather in preserving the correct implementation of Islam, that includes establishing justice and securing the needs of every individual in the State. It is a regime where it obligates its Ummah political accountancy of any oppression, corruption, or neglect of duty of those in ruling is obliged and hence facilitated with numerous avenues rather than fought. It is a system where accountability, transparency, and rule of law are fixed tenets of governance giving real authority and weight to the political voices of women and men alike.

وَمَنْ لَمْ يَحْكُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ

“And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, such are the Oppressors.”

(Al-Maida, 5:45)

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

Saturday, 06 Rabi-ul Thani 1434 AH

16-02-2013 CE