Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem

Dear brothers and sisters, the honourable Muslim women of Uzbekistan have been subjected to a living nightmare under the rule of the tyrant and murderer Karimov. The horrific ordeal they have endured under this criminal regime has been no less brutal than that suffered by their brothers, for this merciless butcher makes no distinction between man and woman, child or grandmother in his relentless vicious war against Islam and the Muslims of Uzbekistan.

As the adherence of our dear sisters of Uzbekistan to their Deen has increased, so has the venomous hatred and repressive policies of Karimov against them. The regime has banned women wearing the khimar from entering public institutions, imposed fines on them that are equal to several-months salary, and even banned the sale of headscarves and jilbabs!  Last month it was reported that Uzbek security personnel in the city of Kokand and Margilan forced Muslim women in the market places to remove their khimars and threatened whoever opposed this with imprisonment or to be transferred to the police court. An eyewitness said, "Men cried and I cried too when I saw elderly women remove their headscarves!"

Alongside this, this titan of tyrants has a long track-record of arresting and abusing Muslim women who carry the Islamic dawah for the Khilafah "Caliphate". Human Rights Watch has reported that hundreds of female members of Hizb ut Tahrir have in recent years been harassed, arrested, beaten, imprisoned, tortured and dishonoured by Uzbek security services simply for distributing a leaflet or to elicit false confessions from male relatives who are also members of the party. Many are mothers whose babies and young children have been torn from their arms in order to incarcerate them. In their prison cells, their khimars and Qur'ans are taken away, and they are treated worse than thieves and murderers. Last year, some of our honourable sisters were taken to the Interior Security headquarters in the Tashkent region where they were subjected to indescribable forms of torture. They were hurled with outrageous insults, pulled by their hair on the ground and their heads hit against the wall, and beaten with bottles and plastic sticks. La hawla wala quwatta illah billah! They remained at the Internal Security headquarters for 30 to 40 days. Even female relatives of those in the party have not been spared, such as 62-year-old Fatima Mukhadirova, mother of 5 who was imprisoned simply for speaking out against the death of her son, Muzafar Avazov, a devoted carrier of the Islamic dawah who was immersed in boiling water by the regime and died in their custody.

Not satisfied with the detention, torture and dishonourment of the devout Muslim women of Uzbekistan, Karimov the butcher also turned the guns of his henchmen upon them. Hundreds of women, old women, pregnant women, and children were present in the demonstration in Andijan on May 13^th 2005 when Uzbek security forces started firing at the protestors. Galima Bukharbaeva, a journalist from the Institute for War and Peace and eye-witness to the massacre said, "They opened fire without mercy on everyone indiscriminately including women and children." She also stated that after the massacre many bodies, especially of women and children were taken away and concealed by the authorities. Another witness told the BBC, "We never expected they would shoot at women and children. I've got 3 children, I was trying to cover them up. I was crying: ‘Take my life, don't shoot my children.'" May Allah destroy Karimov and his regime! Ameen Allahumma ameen!

Brothers and sisters, with all this brutality, this torture, this murder of innocent Muslim women and children, we ask the question:

-       Where are the voices of those feminist and women's groups who are so quick to hurl accusations against Islam's treatment of women but are silent on the unspeakable cruelties executed by this tyrant secular regime against its women?

-       Where are the voices of international bodies such as the UN who construct women's treaties which they force upon Muslim lands in the name of so-called women's rights, yet are deaf to the cries of anguish of the Muslim women of Uzbekistan?

-       And where are the voices of those Western governments who claim to be champions of justice and women's rights, and yet shamelessly embrace this butcher Karimov who terrorises and slaughters innocent Muslim mothers and grandmothers?

Brothers and sisters, these international bodies and Western rulers have not even flinched at this inconceivable level of violation against human dignity and life. Rather they have given Karimov a green light to pursue his campaign of terror and murder against the honourable Muslim women and children of Uzbekistan for the sake of their economic interests, AND because they are hand in hand with him in the fight against the return of the Khilafah "Caliphate" based upon the method of the Prophethood.

Well, we say to Karimov and his Western supporters, do you think that you can terrorise devout Muslim women into leaving their Deen or break the spirit of the female dawah carriers for the Khilafah "Caliphate" as you break their backs? If so then you are deluded, for the Iman of the daughters of this Ummah is not brittle like the throne of these dictators or the democracy and false freedoms you promote! NO! It is an Iman that strengthens under hardship! It is an Iman that hardens resolve in the face of tyranny! And it is an Iman that cannot be extinguished by the weak desperate tactics of weak desperate rulers, highlighted by the fact that female membership of Hizb ut Tahrir in Uzbekistan grows in strength with every passing day! Indeed, your campaign of terror only intensifies the fire that burns in the hearts of the believing women to carry this noble dawah for the Khilafah "Caliphate" and to raise generations that do the same so that we may witness soon bi'ithnillah a state that will return dignity and security to the daughters of this Ummah; a leadership that will make the dictatorships of our lands extinct and show to the world the true care, protection, justice and high status that the woman deserves!

Dear brothers and sisters! Your sisters of Uzbekistan are in need of your support, and Allah obliges you to respond for He the Almighty says, ((وَإِنِ ٱسۡتَنصَرُوكُمۡ فِى ٱلدِّينِ فَعَلَيۡڪُمُ ٱلنَّصۡرُ)) "....if they seek help from you in the matter of the Deen, help is incumbent on you..." [8:72]  So let us work with all our efforts for the establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate" which will replace dictatorship with guardianship for the honourable women of this Ummah. O sons of the Muslim armies! Do the cries of anguish of your sisters and mothers of Uzbekistan not shake your hearts? Does their dishonourment and humiliation not arouse your sense of chivalry to move to their protection? How can you bear for your sisters to remain in the clutches of this tyrant for a moment longer? We call you to end their nightmare by giving your Nussrah for the establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate" and by which you will gain the greatest honour in this life and the next.

I end with a message to our dear, honourable, patient sisters of Uzbekistan. Your bravery in the face of such tyranny truly inspires us. You are today's heroines for the daughters of this Ummah. We pray that Allah ta'ala keeps you steadfast and strong in your noble struggle and that the courage that you have displayed and instilled in your sons and daughters is one that we and our children will embody. Ameen Allahumma Ameen. Stay firm dear sisters for what you have sacrificed so much for is on the horizon Bi'ithnillah, and Insha Allah you will witness soon what your hearts have longed for, for so long - a state built upon the glory of Islam.