Press Release: Only the Khilafah will Ensure a Dignified and Honorable Life for Bangladeshi Women, and will Stop all Kinds of Sexual Assaults

Only the Khilafah will Ensure a Dignified and Honorable Life for Bangladeshi Women, and will Stop all Kinds of Sexual Assaults

According to the report of Dhaka Tribune, 15th April, 2015, several women, who joined the Bengali New Year celebrations on Tuesday, were sexually assaulted by a group of miscreants at Dhaka University’s (DU) TSC and Suhrawardy Udyan gate areas. Witnesses said a group of at least 30 unruly youths swooped on a number of women and assaulted them on Tuesday evening, while a string of festivities were being held, celebrating the first day of the Bengali year, Pohela Boishakh. Bangladesh Students’ Union’s DU chapter President Liton Nandi, who received severe injuries while trying to rescue one of the women, questioned the role of Bangladesh’s police in preventing such incidents, saying, “The on-duty police members did not act during the assault on women. They visited the spot almost one hour later when all the stalkers had left the place quietly.” Desperately trying to catch up to public outrage against these attacks, the Culture Minister issued a statement on 16th April demanding the punishment of the perpetrators.

In fact, this kind of shameless assaults on women is not new in DU campus which is the champion for guarding secular values. Every year at the DU campus during the Bengali New Year festival which is itself non-Islamic and secular in nature and nothing but blind imitation of pagan culture, women are sexually attacked. However, the secular-based ruling class generally turn a blind eye to the problem or suffices with issuing a few condemnatory words without seeking a true fundamental solution towards such heinous acts. For the last few decades, consecutive democratic governments of Bangladesh have passed a number of new strict laws according to the prescription of CEDAW and several policy papers aimed to protect the rights and honor of women. A Women Abuse Protection Cell has been formed in many parts of the country for women’s protection and most of all, several action plans have been taken at government and non-governmental level to raise mass awareness against the abuse and sexual harassment of women. But the continuation of these assaults, not just in DU but across the country, at a level that has reached epidemic proportions, have undoubtedly proven that this man made secular democratic system has utterly failed to protect the wellbeing and dignity of women in Bangladesh. Infact, these corrupt secular and liberal values are the number one enemy of women and responsible for increasing abuse against women in the country and within states globally. Destructive values like limitless freedom and lack of accountability have turned women into objects of male gratification and made them victims of the whims and desires of men. Moreover, this system has turned women’s bodies and femininity into a cheap sexual commodity for crude financial benefit, which destroyed the dignity of women and created an extremely low view towards them. Consequently, abuse rates have spiralled and reached every corner of the society. Furthermore, Bangladesh’s corrupt judicial system which is thoroughly polluted with nepotism and cronyism, has not only failed to establish a secure environment for women, but also completely failed to bring any kind of justice for the vast majority of abused and assaulted women.  This corrupt man-made secular system will never hold the promise of a dignified life for the women of Bangladesh.

Only the Khilafah, established on the method of the Prophethood, will soon protect the honour of Muslim and non-Muslim women of Bangladesh, Inshallah, because under this state women will not be considered as a cheap sexual product, rather they will be declared as the honor of the state that must be protected. The state will take the highest measure to protect the honor of every single female citizen. This it achieves by nurturing taqwa (God-consciousness) and accountability within its society as well as promoting Islam’s high view of women as that of being an honor that must be protected, and prohibiting any action that devalues their status. Additionally, it will reject personal and sexual freedom, and rather implement the unique social system of Islam which effectively regulates the relationship between men and women within society, ensuring productive, respectful and safe interaction between the genders at all times. And finally it will enforce severe punishments on anyone who harms the dignity of a woman in any manner. It is therefore surely time to discard the failed secular system from our lands and replace it urgently with the Khilafah Rashidah upon the method of the Prophethood which alone deserves to run the affairs of women and men alike.

Women’s Section
in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir