News:

Indonesia pledges to provide more mechanisms to protect women and children's rights, announced Indonesian Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA) Yohana Susana Yembise on March 12 at an UN meeting in New York, as reported by many national and international media on 13th March. The 59th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) from March 9 -22 is to discuss the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in the past decade.

Minister Yembise emphasized that gender equality has become one of the keys to comprehensive and sustainable development in Indonesia, as highlighted in the mid-term national development plan from 2015-2019. The minister acknowledged that Indonesia is still facing challenges, including a high maternal mortality rate at 359 per 100,000 births, the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS among women, the increasing number of women and children victims of violence, and a low rate of females in the country's legislative, executive and judicial sectors. A total case of violence against women in Indonesia - during 2014 alone was reaching 293,220 cases, reported by National Commission of Women's Rights in early of this March.

Comment:

Apparently, Indonesia government keeps their Western-oriented stance to be subjugated into secular idea of gender equality for solving mountains of women problems in Indonesia. In fact, gender equality is not a universal value and is often used to criminalize the Islamic Shariah related to women. This idea actually emerged from the Western history and its civilization problems that view women inferior than men intellectually and spiritually.

This kind of political attitude to bind themselves to any forums and international treaties that promote gender equality, prove that this Muslim country obviously has been blinded by the secular solutions promoted by the West as a solution for women. Indonesian government needs to realize that has been more than three decades since the ratification of CEDAW in this country, but it has never brought any improvement for millions of women, rather the problems of violence and exploitation are increasing from year to year.

On the other side, the Indonesian government must not forget Islam. During the golden era of Islam in the Archipelago, any practices of exploitation and enslavement of women were almost unheard. On the contrary, the cases have been widespread since the Western colonialism began to penetrate this region until modern nowadays. In the Islamic civilization history, it has never been engraved the oppression of women as in the Western civilization, because Islam originally views that women have the same status, intellectually, and spiritually like the men. Islam also has a set of comprehensive, fundamental solutions for the society institution, not only for women.

During these times, many secular Muslim rulers have been so arrogant when dealing with the Islamic Shariah. Please be humble! Open your mind to accept and learn Islam with sincerity, and turn away from the West and its shackled agreements! Remember the words of Allah:

((اتَّبِعْ مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْمُشْرِكِينَ))

"Follow what is revealed to you from your Lord, there is no God but Him and turn aside from the mushrikin" [TMQ Al-An'am: 106]
O Muslim rulers, open your heart and mind to see the sincere struggle from the Women of Hizb ut Tahrir who are currently holding a global campaign "Women and Shariah: Separating Reality of Fiction" challenging the West's worn out concept of gender equality, also the toxic narrative of women's oppression under Shariah, oppose the accusations against certain Islamic laws related to women, as well as to explain the basis, values, and laws of the unique Islamic Social System to visualize the lives of women under the correct implementation of Shariah and how its implementation in various fields of society will solve many problems women faced today. The campaign will culminate in an international women's conference on March 28, 2015, which will be held simultaneously in five countries and one of them is in Indonesia. Insha Allah

Written for Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Fika Komara
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir