On the 5th May 2018 the BBC reported that Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) documents the killing of 1 woman a week due to domestic violence abuse from male partners. Spain has one of the highest rates of physical abuse of women in Europe and women have now resorted to using trained dogs that accompany them everywhere to fend off danger. The report expresses the nightmare of women who feel completely imprisoned by their constant fear of attack and how they have lost all sense of being able to live normal lives.

Comment:

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights recently undertook an extensive survey in 2017 (the first of its kind) in which over 40,000 women were interviewed across the European Union regarding their experiences of violence and abuse. Their findings were truly shocking as they clearly showed how women living in fear and danger has become a normalized feature of every society. 1 out of 2 women reports that they have been physically violated and most do not report the incident which reflects a complete lack of faith on the government system to achieve any kind of justice or security. 50 percent of women say that their partner has emotionally abused them and know someone who is being abused and 1 out of 5 women has been stalked by a male making them feel unable to move around freely.

From these facts we can understand the wide scale daily suffering of women. Their age, careers, financial status and education have not afforded them any protection as it is the Capitalist liberal values that have turned women into worthless commodities and pitched personal freedom against the rights of the individuals to live in dignity. This chaotic social mess can never be resolved with any news laws or funding of projects as the underlying cause of conflicting man-made laws is the root of the problem. This is why we never see an end to women’s rights abuses regardless of how many generations of debate and fact-finding we have. The Islamic State, governed by the laws of Allah (swt), gave a centralized uniform understanding of human rights that did not provide any conflict with any other persons’ interest. There was harmony and safety for all citizens with strict and clear punishments for those who violate the  wellbeing of others. So comprehensive and effective was this system that very few cases of crime and punishment were recorded as from the education system to social family life (private and public) as well as the judicial system and law enforcement; all levels of society had a clear vision of what was acceptable. The fact that the EU reports explain that most people do not even intervene when they see abusive incidents show how denigrate the moral values have become in a climate of so called “freedom and democracy”.

The reality of the law of the jungle rules is that it is weak and vulnerable and is left to be exploited by the powerful. This is the case for women in business and in the workplace and in every area of personal and social interaction. The Quran rules that women are a critical component in society to be guarded and given full opportunity to live as women and be protected from all harm and abuse as explained in Surah Taubah verse 71.

وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتُ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ يَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَيُطِيعُونَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ أُولَئِكَ سَيَرْحَمُهُمُ اللَّهُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ

“The believers, both men and women, are allies of one another. They enjoin good, forbid evil, establish Prayer, pay Zakah, and obey Allah and His Messenger. Surely Allah will show mercy to them. Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise.”

(Al Taubah, 9:71)

With the return of the true Khilafah rule, all people will have the same understanding to the extent that even non-Muslim women appreciate the real benefits of being able to flourish and develop themselves when they live without fear of insult or humiliation. It is only with the return of the high values of Islam that women can rely on real solutions to their problems instead of resorting to animals for their protection.

Imrana Mohammad