بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
TALK 5
The Role of Muslim Women in Change
Dr. Nazreen Nawaz
Director of the Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Alhumdullialahi Rabil aalamin. Wasalaatu wassalamu, ‘alaa Sayidina Muhammad, wa alaaa aalihe, wa Sahbehi, ajmain. Assalaamu Alaikum waRahmatullahi waBarakaatuhu
Dear Brothers and Sisters, in the 19th century, a French administrator trying to strengthen France’s colonial rule over parts of the Muslim world stated, “It is through women that we can get hold of the soul of a people”. The colonialists realised that within Muslim societies, women are the centre of the family, the backbone of communities, and the nurturers of children. If they could capture their hearts and minds, then they could capture the soul of the Muslim Ummah for generations to come.
So, they spun a web of lies around the Muslim woman and her Deen, falsely accusing the Shariah and the Khilafah of being her enemy and the source of her oppression, while also claiming that the Western secular culture and system was the path to her liberation from subjugation.
But their lies have dissolved in the tears of Muslim women, for the loss of our guardian and shield the Khilafah and the rule by secular and other man-made systems in our lands brought us nothing but death, destruction, dishonour and despair.
For women never had a better life than under the shade of the System of Allah (swt): the Khilafah, which revolutionised the status and rights of women, raising their dignity to a level the world had never witnessed before, and where a single cry from an oppressed Muslim woman would be enough for the Khalifah to mobilise an army to her defence. It was a state which supported women to openly account their leaders without fear, provided them first-class education institutions and health care facilities, and ensured that they were always financially provided for by their husband, male relatives or the state as obligated by Islam such that they enjoyed a prosperous and secure life. Indeed, documents of the Uthmani Khilafah described the woman as the “Crown on the head of the state” (Taj al-Dawla), urging statesmen to avoid harming women and to make every effort to preserve their dignity. All this…centuries before Western secular states even recognised the concept of women’s rights!
But now, we see the tragedies and anguish resulting from the loss of the Khilafah imprinted on the lives of Muslim women globally. Their honour, protections and countless privileges afforded to them by the Laws of Allah (swt) became one of the primary casualties of the absence of this glorious state. And they became the terrorized victims of tyrant regimes who persecuted them simply for wearing their Islamic dress or for raising the banner of their Deen.
So, it is no surprise that today, we hear the call for the Khilafah resounding from the women of this Ummah from all corners of the world! Indeed, how ironic it is, that while Western colonial governments targeted women in the Muslim lands to destroy the Khilafah…. Today, significant numbers of women, born and bred on western soil have joined their voices with their sisters in the Muslim world in calling for the establishment of the Khilafah…. Having witnessed first-hand the devastation that secular liberal values and systems have sown upon the lives of people here and across the world. So, as Muslim women, we refuse to allow the secularists and feminists to speak on our behalf, to cage our voices and write our scripts about our hopes and aspirations for change. We say it loud and clear, we see the Khilafah as our saviour from oppression; we see the Shariah as the path to liberation from all forms of subjugation; and we see Islam as the means to a brighter future for our Muslim lands and indeed this entire world!
Dear Sisters, Muslim women have a vital role in creating positive political change in this world. But this will not be achieved by futile and unIslamic gender equality battles that feminists have engaged us in and which have led down the road to nowhere, except deepening our problems as women and societies, including harming marriages and families through sowing confusion and discord in marital rights and responsibilities. Nor will real change for women and this world be achieved through the reformation of a few laws and policies when the whole system in our lands is rotten – root and branch! Why should we settle for spoilt crumbs when Allah has given us gold?!!
So dear Sisters, we call you to join and support us, your sisters in Hizb ut Tahrir in this noble dawa to establish the glorious System of Allah (swt), the Khilafah upon the method of the Prophethood which will herald for us a new dawn of justice, security and prosperity. Allah (swt) said:
[كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللّهِ]
“You are the best Ummah raised up for (the benefit of) men; you enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong and believe in Allah.” [Aali-Imran: 110] The Muslim woman is part of this noble Ummah. Therefore, we must take our rightful place in this struggle to take humankind from the darkness of kufr to the light of Islam by returning the System of Allah (swt) to this world…for this is a trust that our Rabb has placed in our hands.
Indeed, Allah has made this a vital obligation upon all believers – men and women, for the Prophet (saw) said, «وَمَنْ مَاتَ وَلَيْسَ فِي عُنُقِهِ بَيْعَةٌ مَاتَ مِيتَةً جَاهِلِيَّةً» “Whoever dieswhile there was no Bay’ah (the pledge of allegiance to a Khalifah) on his neck, he dies a death of Jahiliyyah (ignorance).” Therefore, the Fard of working for the return of the Khilafah, so that we may give the Bayah to the Khalifah, is a priority and great responsibility for the Muslim woman as it is for the Muslim man. So dear Sisters, in addition to fulfilling our individual Islamic duties as Muslimah, and as daughters, wives and mothers, we must give our time and attention, and exert our full efforts to fulfilling this vital obligation. So, call your friends, family, neighbours, students, colleagues and those of influence you know in your community and in the media and Muslim armies to reject the corrupt non-Islamic ideas and systems in the Muslim lands and to support the establishment of the Khilafah with urgency. Alongside this sisters, raise your children to also be guardians of humanity who work to establish this Deen in authority in this world, so that together, we will create a generation of youth Biithnillah who will carry the Qur’an in one hand and the Ar-Rayyah in the other!
Our beloved Sisters, you are the inheritors of the legacy of the great Muslim women of the past who supported and struggled for Islam, such as Khadijah (ra) the wife of the Prophet (saw), Sumayah (ra) the first martyr of Islam, and Umm Amarah (ra) who defended the Messenger (saw) with her own body on the battlefield. So, follow the footsteps of these great women by answering the Call of Allah (swt) to establish His System upon this earth and be part of bringing this momentous change to this world. Hasten to the Pleasure of your Rabb, hasten to restore the lost status of the woman as the crowned jewel of the state, hasten to achieve the glory of this Deen, hasten to the establishment of the second Khilafah Rashidah. Allah (swt) says:
[وَالَّذِي جَاء بِالصِّدْقِ وَصَدَّقَ بِهِ أُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُتَّقُونَ * لَهُم مَّا يَشَاءونَ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ ذَلِكَ جَزَاء الْمُحْسِنِينَ]
“And the one who brings the Truth and the one who confirms (and supports it), these are the righteous. They shall have all that they wished for in the presence of their Lord. Such is the reward of those who do good.” [Az-Zumar: 33-34].