Afghanistan Times reported on 4th December 2016 that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Sunday said that still 80 percent of Afghan women experience or has experienced at least one type of violence in Afghanistan during their lives. Deputy Minister for Public Health Ahmad Jan Naeem, said that “8,188 cases of gender-based violence have been registered by the ministry of public health across the country”. He said that 2,806 cases were physical violence, 3,470 mental sensitivity, 1,207 lack of access to resources, 403 forced marriages, 166 sexual assaults and 136 sexual harassments against women. According to the Ministry of Public health, gender-based violence is the most prevalent breach of human rights and estimated that one woman out of every three women suffer from physical and sexual harassment, but violence is higher against women and girls in Afghanistan than most of the countries in the world.
Comment:
Violence against women is a problem that exists not only in Afghanistan but worldwide. Around the world, activists call for an end to violence against women. According to the United Nations (UN), from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign is a time to galvanize action to end violence against women and girls around the world. The international campaign originated from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991.
Women and Girls make up 80% of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked across national borders annually, with 70% of them trafficked for sexual exploitation. Up to 7 in 10 Women in the world report having experienced physical and or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime. In some countries, the annual cost of the intimate partner violence was calculated at USS 1.6 to USS 5.8 Billion. Worldwide up to 50 % of sexual assaults are committed against girls under the age of 16. More than 100 Million girls are missed due to prenatal sex selection. As many as 1 in 4 women experience physical or sexual violence during pregnancy. Approximately 250,000 to 500,000 women and girls were raped in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
This status of woman around the world arouses a horror and it begs the question how such a miserable situation can find an end. Secularism which is today the world power, has long been calling for women’s rights, but has not yet been able to introduce any changes that has solved or even reduced violence against women. Secularism is created by human beings and therefore cannot be successful in solving this or any human problem. It focuses merely on equalizing all social, economic and political rights between women and men. With this action, secularism pursues his own interests, which are based on democracy and capitalist market economy. It only needs women to contribute to a larger work force and conceals this intention by recognizing the equality of women and men in society. Secularism separates the religion from the state, and from everyday affairs and thus from the people. So the people have no morals, no ethics and no boundary defined by religion or accountability to a Creator, which has made them view and treat women according to their own desires, and to consider them as sexual objects. In addition, the western attitude reduces the woman to her physical appearance and values her based on her looks which contributes to the fact that the woman is regarded as an object. So in the capitalist system, it is impossible to maintain the dignity of women. In today’s colonialized countries like Afghanistan it is not any different. Whether it be out of ignorance, out of unislamic traditions or out of the influence of the Western idea of sexual liberation, the women are not treated properly.
The solution does not lie in equalizing women and men according to gender equality, or to involve them both in a fight as to who has the greatest say or rights, or to allow the woman to undress as much as she wants in order not to be so-called suppressed by the hijab. And it also does not lie in destroying the family through sexual freedoms and to change the role of the parents, or in the establishment of women’s refuges or in legitimizing homosexuality. These laws have been introduced in many Western countries of the world, and the global violence against women still exists.
The world needs a leadership that is truly interested in defending the rights of women. It needs a power that does not think of its own advantages but the advantages of the women. It needs a state which is ready to send an army if a woman is dishonoured. It needs a leader who is not ashamed to be corrected by women about the political issues. It needs a society where the high position of the woman is irreplaceable. It needs a law where the man and the woman are the same as before the Lord and where the paradise is under the feet of the mother.
The world need the revival of the Khilafah (Caliphate) upon the method of the Prophethood! The unique state based on Islam where no human being was unfairly treated. The unique legislation that was not created by humans! The unique power that stands for justice in human history!
وَمَن لَّمۡ يَحۡڪُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ فَأُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ هُمُ ٱلظَّـٰلِمُونَ
“Whoever does not rule according to what Allah has revealed, they are the oppressors.”
(Al-Maida, 5:45)
Amanah Abed