News:
On the 16th of December 2014, Reuters News reported that a current survey shows that women in Delhi, India, still do not feel safe even after many introductions of more police on the streets and tougher legal sentencing to deter crimes against women. “A poll published by Hindustan Times newspaper on the 16th of December 2014, (the anniversary of high profile Delhi gang rape of a 23 year old female traveling home on a bus), said 91 percent of 2,557 women surveyed did not see any improvements in safety. The same survey found 86 percent of respondents avoided going out alone after dark. New Delhi – with it’s 16 million population annually records the highest number of rapes compared to other Indian cities, earning it the unsavoury reputation of “India’s Rape Capital”. Kalpana Viswanath, co-founder of Safetipin, an app that helps users by providing safety-related information suggests that improvements need to be made in Infrastructure like better street lighting, public transport and last mile connectivity so women do not travel on foot. A 320 million dollar fund in currently available to make such changes to support the 18 exiting policies to protect women against violence which include GPS buses, free women’s telephone helplines and self-defense classes for the women and children.
Comment:
The fact that Delhi is still classed as the fourth most dangerous place in the world for women to use public transport shows that a lack of technology and money is not the root of the problem of violence against women. This global phenomenon is a matter that affects women of every culture and class in the developed and non-developed countries. It is the fundamental attitudes to women that have not changed which results in the ever-escalating acts of barbarity that women and girls have to face in their own homes and in public spaces. Regardless of how many policies are adopted to treat the abuse of women, no secular government addresses the fundamental identity of women in society as objects to be used and exploited according to sensual pleasure or economic benefit. All governments internationally make no crime of the female attributes being displayed in advertising campaigns to earn great profits for western or domestic companies; the entertainment and hostess industries all exploit women, and from a young age girls are taught to value themselves in terms of physical appearance above all qualities. It is only with the complete removal of this destructive liberal/secular way of thinking that women can be released from the programming of males to use and abuse women as they please. Islam has a clear identity of women as a valuable creation of Allah سبحانه وتعالى that has a specific biological and social identity and role, not less than, but just as important to their male counterpart. Their roles and rights as mothers, sisters, wives, aunties and daughters and grandmothers are all detailed in the Quran and Sunnah in a manner so detailed and precise that under the Islamic State, Khilafah, violation and deviation of these strict measures would be very difficult, especially when all systems (economic, education, legal and foreign policies) would be working in total harmony to implement divine laws of Allah سبحانه وتعالى over his creation so they are all protected from the illness of following the emotions and personal benefit at the expense of the wellbeing of others. Allah سبحانه وتعالى relates the mercy of Islam ruling over mankind in the verses of Quran Surah Nur verse 1;
سُورَةٌ أَنزَلْنَاهَا وَفَرَضْنَاهَا وَأَنزَلْنَا فِيهَا آيَاتٍ بَيِّنَاتٍ لَّعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ
“We have sent down and which We have enjoined, (ordained its legal laws) and in it We have revealed manifest Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations lawful and unlawful things, and set boundaries of Islamic Religion), that you may remember.”
And the means women are protected are further revealed in the following Ayah in the same Surah verses 4-6;
وَالَّذِينَ يَرْمُونَ الْمُحْصَنَاتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَأْتُوا بِأَرْبَعَةِ شُهَدَاء فَاجْلِدُوهُمْ ثَمَانِينَ جَلْدَةً وَلَا تَقْبَلُوا لَهُمْ شَهَادَةً أَبَدًا وَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ * إِلَّا الَّذِينَ تَابُوا مِن بَعْدِ ذَلِكَ وَأَصْلَحُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ * وَالَّذِينَ يَرْمُونَ أَزْوَاجَهُمْ وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُمْ شُهَدَاء إِلَّا أَنفُسُهُمْ فَشَهَادَةُ أَحَدِهِمْ أَرْبَعُ شَهَادَاتٍ بِاللَّهِ إِنَّهُ لَمِنَ الصَّادِقِينَ
“And those who accuse chaste women, and produce not four witnesses, flog them with eighty stripes, and reject their testimony forever, they indeed are the Fasiqun (liars, rebellious, disobedient to Allah). Except those who repent thereafter and do righteous deeds, (for such) verily, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. And for those who accuse their wives, but have no witnesses except themselves, let the testimony of one of them be four testimonies (i.e. testifies four times) by Allah that he is one of those who speak the truth.”
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Imrana Mohammad
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir