Women of Hizb ut Tahrir appalled by a chemical attack and other massacres of women and children in Syria marched in London to show solidarity and called for Muslim armies to mobilise to defend the blood of their Ummah.

More than a thousand women gathered at Paddington Green for a short rally before marching to the Syrian embassy. At the front of the march children carried a small coffin and others carried bundles representing dead children. As they say in the call for the march "rows upon rows of dead children in their burial shrouds have no doubt brought us to tears as Muslim women, for this is our beloved Ummah that is being killed." The leaflet called on them to "Stand in solidarity with your sisters in Syria and speak out against the shedding of their blood and that of their families and children."

They reject the idea of Western military intervention in Syria, which they say "will only subject its Muslims to another phase of oppression as seen in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and is aimed at preventing the establishment of Islamic governance in Syria."

Hizb ut Tahrir seek the replacement of the current corrupt rulers in Islamic states by a Khilifah (caliphate), a state that will truly implement Islamic values and end the corruption and oppression of the current states. They want Muslims to rise up and get rid of corruption, and in particular of "the criminal regime of the butcher Bashar Al Assad" in Syria, for Muslim armies to mobilise and replace the rule of the dictator with the rule of Allah."

Almost all the women on the march wore head-scarves, with only a very small minority in niqabs or burqas which covered the whole face. Very few turned away when I raised my camera and I had no problems photographing the march setting up and a rally before the start at Paddington Green. There was one small group of men with a banner and a heavy public address system, but otherwise the whole protest was by women and children. I left the march on Edgware Road on its way to protest at the Syrian embassy.

[Source: Demotix, submitted by Peter Marshal]