Side Feature, Social System, The Khilafah

Kenya is Targeted by CEDAW with No Intentions of Helping Muslim Women

On the 10th of December 2019, the Kenyan newspaper, The Star, discussed CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women) in relation to Kenya being recently highlighted for falling short of its goals for women’s grand adherence to the protocols of liberal democracy and the United Nations agendas. The author, Daniel Otieno, wrote, “CEDAW aims at ensuring that traditional gender roles and stereotypes do not work against the interest of girls.” He stressed that the issues of concern are the current problems of child marriage in Kenyan culture, female mutilation and inequality in social laws, particularly those relating to economic rights after divorce and before marriage. The article quotes, “Ratifying CEDAW implies the convention should be part of the Constitution. However, in Kenya, sections of the three Acts contravene the CEDAW recommendations. For instance, the Marriage Act negates the gain of equality in marriage…there are numerous cases of FGM, deaths related to unsafe abortion and mortality rates associated with a lack of skilled birth attendants. During doctors’ strikes, many deaths occur during delivery. For CEDAW recommendations to be effective in Kenya, there is a need to address the existing gaps.”

Such articles are common in the Muslim world and are written by personalities who are blinded by the secular mindset that negates any discussion of Islamic values and laws as complete political system to erase the partial solutions offered under Pseudo Democracies. Such articles often make accurate assessments of real problems faced by women but fail to identify that they come from man-made laws and contradictions that result from conflicting interests of the elite businesses and the real people that want to improve their lives. The economic concerns of the rich and powerful, linked to the neo-neocolonialist agendas of foreign bodies, will always mean that moral duties to really help women will never be truly important.

In fact using and abusing women for slave labour, social entertainment and advertising as well as tools for fake social control are actively encouraged. The proof of this is that the IMF and World Bank all use debt and interest to keep millions of women in poverty with immense suffering often forcing them out of school and decent employment opportunities to earn meagre sums of money. International companies welcome the cheap labour of millions of female children and women who are not given rights of sick pay, holidays and safe working conditions. Multinational arms dealers earn billions from the weapons used to keep wars and tribal disputes ongoing to destabilize the country making it unsafe for women. All UN laws on genocide are never applied to protect women and children who make up most of the world’s refugees. The list of failures of how CEDAW is selectively applied in isolation to the bigger picture that connects all policies is endless.

The real purpose of CEDAW in so that it can be used as a political excuse to interfere in the political policies of Muslim nations to keep the Islamic political solution far from the people reach. It is well understood by Western governments that the Khilafah (Caliphate) is the means by which the control of the non-Islamic system will be removed. The women of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir expose the fake help of CEDAW and its related institutions as they will only keep the suffering of women alive and well in our countries. We encourage writers and intellectuals to research the Islamic system and its glorious past to see that there is a comprehensive change that will come about when the Khilafah is established that will truly elevate the status of women in all levels of society, be it educational rights, safety, removing cultural laws that harm and allowing women to develop talents and skills with dignity. Allah (swt) created men and women and is the One who can best design a means to look after all interests in harmony.

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُواْ رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالاً كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاء وَاتَّقُواْ اللّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءلُونَ بِهِ وَالأَرْحَامَ إِنَّ اللّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا

“O mankind: Reverence your Guardian Lord Who created you from a single person created of like nature his mate and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women; reverence Allah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights) and (reverence) the wombs (that bore you): for Allah ever watches over you.” [An-Nisaa, 4:1]

 

Imrana Mohammed

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir