In December this year, Pakistan’s Senate passed two women’s rights bills aimed at providing punishments for specific crimes against women and violations of their rights, as well as the law of the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill 2008 establishes jail terms and financial punishments for those found guilty of certain anti-women cultural practices such as depriving them of their inheritance, forcing them into marriage… Proponents of these bills have faced years of struggle and significant resistance from Pakistan’s backward political establishment in the path of calling for the realisation of these basic women’s rights.

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz, Central Media Representative, Hizb ut-Tahrir commented, “Pakistan’s government and political establishment is playing 1400 years catch up to the Islamic system. These heinous, deplorable crimes and violations of women’s rights were prohibited by Islamic law from its beginnings 14 centuries ago and yet it has taken over 60 years for Pakistan’s successive non-Islamic secular political leaderships to enshrine a basic human right into law.

“Unfortunately this is no land-mark victory for Pakistan’s women nor watershed moment in women’s rights, for this government has a legacy of indifference to the wellbeing of its women and has demonstrated time and again its utter incompetence in safeguarding their rights. Despite laws against harming and abusing women, these atrocious crimes continue not only due to systemic failings in Pakistan’s judicial system but also the trivial manner by which this and previous secular governments have approached securing the dignity of women and enforcement of laws that protect their rights.”

“Unfortunately these laws will prove to be empty words on paper. How can a government that engages in deplorable anti-women practices itself – including turning its back on the thousands of Muslim women defiled and widowed in Kashmir by Indian forces, ignoring the slaughter of its daughters by US drones, and the shameful abandonment of Dr. Aafia, the innocent daughter of this Ummah into the hands of an enemy state – ever be trusted to look after the wellbeing of its women?”

“We call the women of Pakistan and those who have a sincere concern for women’s dignity not to accept crumbs but rather to give their support to the establishment of the Khilafah – a state that pioneered the call for women’s rights globally. It is a system that does not churn out empty bills but provides a comprehensive system and clear strategy to eradicate oppressive views and practices towards women and has a zero tolerance approach to any form of violence or injustice meted out against them. It is a state that gives the weight, attention, and high priority to securing the dignity and rights of women that it deserves…

The establishment of the Khilafah is the way to the true landmark victory for Pakistan’s women.”