Press Release
A Series of Media Messages to Muslim Women (4)
Message by Sister Imrana Mohammed - member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
for the campaign organized by Shabbat of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Sudan
Message to the Muslim Women of Africa from your Sisters in the West

The Women of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir wish to convey a warm Islamic greeting Asslamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatahu to all of our dear sisters in the Africa.

Anyone growing up in the west would have been conditioned to view Africa as a place of poverty, endless tribal wars and one of the most dangerous places on earth to be women. In many areas Islam and religious influence is blamed for the keeping Africa in the ‘third world' ‘underdeveloped' status; however the truth is that it is the harmful effects of western colonialism with its inherent agenda of exploitation and suppression of the indigenous populations that is really to blame.

The women and children of Africa have suffered most of all from the pseudo-democratic agendas played out in the region. The media, NGO's and international organizations help the oppression of women by hiding the crimes of all of the leaders in the continent who abuse their power to serve western economic interests. Two thirds of the world's illiterate are women and the majority of these live in West Africa, the majority of the millions of refugees fleeing, starvation, violence and war in Africa are women and children. Currently sub-Saharan African women collectively spend over 40 billion hours a year fetching water.

In the recent Rio+20 report, it is cited that gender inequality is a major cause of hunger and poverty amongst women, but decades of colonial schemes directed by the IMF, World Bank and UN aimed at targeting gender inequality by funding birth control programs, education projects and other liberal cultural initiatives have only been designed to undermine the Islamic values of women making it easier for foreign governments to exploit new labour markets that enslave women and destroy the family unit in order to open up opportunities for trade and higher commercial profits. History records that it is under colonialist rule, women were required, by law in some cases, to provide wage labour for the European plantation economies. Your sisters in the west have researched examples of your struggle against under both direct and indirect colonialism of puppet leaders that is the true cause of the suffering of our sisters across the region.

We know that colonialism led to the complete loss of access to land by women, a matter that Islam considers to be a right. The colonialists brought with them the idea of private ownership of land but in Kenya, under the Swynnerton Plan of 1954, women were completely excluded from this ownership. Unjust colonial economic policies pushed men to migrant to the cities to fill the labour gap leaving women stranded in the rural areas vulnerable to attack and with an increasingly workload. The Northey Circular in Kenya (1919) commanded district officers and African chiefs to procure women and juvenile labourers for private and public works. Taxes opposite to the Islamic economic system were introduced by the colonial authorities in Nigeria; the British colonial authority used African males to impose taxes on women. Women could be taxed from the age of fifteen! The introduction of the cash crop economy such as (cocoa, coffee, cotton etc) has doubled the agricultural load on women as they are also expected to grow and source food.

One may argue that the colonial era allowed technological advancements that elevated the standard of living of a backward region. However this idea can be challenged in that historically with the introduction of the plough the backbreaking, labor intensive work of sowing and weeding was left to women. Currently 91% of the world's HIV positive children are in Africa, because of the colonialist's culture and the spread of its vice, at the same time western companies withholding the technology to help the sick through prioritizing patent laws and high costs of drugs that would be given free under an Islamic Khilafah "Caliphate" System.

These are but a few examples to show how colonialism had a devastating effect on the women of Africa.

In contrast, the lives of women under the Islamic political system was vastly different. Just economic policies that promote circulation of wealth and directly oppose privatization of public resources made Africa the breadbasket of the world.

Under the Social System, women are an honor to be protected from exploitation and slave labour. The Khilafah "Caliphate" permitted women to have an active political and social life free from the fear of indiscriminate violence and empowered her with opportunities to educate herself and thrive in all aspects of her female potential. These noble achievements for women and society in general were possible as Islam did not expand into Africa with a colonialist agenda, but rather it's goal was to liberate people from the darkness and oppression of false values and dictatorships that dominated the world in the past and still exist today. As a result, every area that Islam ruled over was elevated socially and politically.

Al-Idrisi in 1511 described the Tekur Country under the rule of Islam, known to the Arab historians as the Bilad al-Sudan, as ‘secure, peaceful and tranquil.' Eminent Arab historians have written about the glories of these lands, notable among whom are Al-Bakri, Al-Masudi, Ibn Batutah and Ibn Khaldun. Ali Ghazi (1476 to 1503) upon ruling Bornu an area in Nigera, founded a new and thriving capital city, Nigazaragamu, that progressed socially and economically under the Islamic Ruling system. He used to visit the chief Imam ‘Umar Masramba to learn more about the Islamic legal system. He, persuaded the nobility and Chiefs to limit the number of their wives to only four, thus allowing women to be free from the social abuses of the time. In Western Sudan, the great cities of Islamic learning like the first Muslim University, Sankore University Timbuktu and Jenne educated Muslim women who became Islamic scholars nurturing their communities.

Oh Muslim women of Africa, the Muslim women living in the west have lived the reality of how liberal values have failed women who are still campaigning for basic rights such as equal pay and representation in society. How then can Muslim women seek progress under these false values of liberalism and feminism? We urge you work for the only system that can bring real progress for women, as was the case proven under the rule the Islamic State - the system of your Lord and creator Allah (swt) who knows you better than you know yourself and has raised your status higher than any of the insincere international agencies who's real intentions are to destroy your identity and Islamic allegiance so that you can be used, sold and then thrown into the rubbish bins of society. We are with you in your ambitious aims for greatness in the Dounia and Akhirah as servants of none but Allah (swt).

We are with you in working for the Khilafah "Caliphate" that will secure a safe and noble future for your daughters, we are with you in declaring the ayat of the Quran when Allah (swt) says.

(مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ)

"Who so does that which is right, and believes, whether male or female, him or her will We quicken to happy life." [Noble Quran 16:97]

It is only under the Khilafah "Caliphate" that the true meaning of tranquility and happiness for the women of Africa will be achieved.

Official Spokeswoman of Hizb ut Tahrir
Women's Section in Wilayah Sudan