Uk Laws to Protect Muslim Women Will Fail to Do the Job

Arab News reported that MPs in the UK have proposed making it a criminal offence to possess images of Muslim women not wearing hijabs without their consent.

The suggestion was made in a report by the House of Commons’ Women and Equalities Committee, which said such photos should constitute “non-consensual intimate images”.

The MPs said under current legal definitions, such images include people being partially or fully nude, or engaging in behaviour such as sexual activity or using the bathroom.

The report said: “Abuse can also include material that is considered ‘culturally intimate’ for the victim, such as a Muslim woman being pictured without her hijab.”

It added: “Non-consensual intimate image abuse is not always limited to sexually explicit content. For example, in some cultures, countries, or religions, sharing a photograph of someone without their religious clothing — or with their arm around another person — can be disastrous for the victim.”

Creating intimate images without consent, “in circumstances in which an ordinary reasonable person would reasonably expect to be afforded privacy,” is set to be made a criminal offence later this year, but possession will remain legal.

The report concluded that the government “should bring forward amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill to make possession of non-consensual intimate images an offence.”

In November, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Victims Alex Davies-Jones told the committee that the Law Commission had decided it would be “impossible to craft a definition that suits everyone.”

The committee’s chair, Sarah Owen, said: “Non-consensual intimate image abuse is a deeply personal crime which can have life-changing and life-threatening consequences.”

“We welcome the Government’s proposals to make creating non-consensual intimate images an offence, but a legal gap remains…The Government should bring forward amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill to make possession as well as the creation an offence…This ensures non-consensual intimate images receive the same legal treatment as child sexual abuse material.”

These proposals to somehow rescue women from the crimes of having their honour violated are partial and shortsighted.

The same system of liberal values forces women to expose their body by force under Hijab ban laws that are never challenged by the international community.

These same “rights” that are given one day, can be taken away under another “intellectual reasoning” process.

This is already seen in the Asian Republics where Niqab bans are in process.

We are not respected as Muslim women when interest, profits and personal opinion are the measures of right and wrong.

The only way all of the Muslims Women’s rights can be secured is under an authority that actually values ALL OF MUSLIM WOMEN’S RIGHTS.

The Khilafah (Caliphate) will never change its protection of the Muslim women based on public opinions or political games. A change of leadership or political party will never remove the human rights of a citizen as they are fixed by Allah (swt).

That is why we should never celebrate such initiatives as it is the celebration of leaving some part of the Quran and Sunnah and accepting some parts conditionally, and this is Haram;

[ثُمَّ أَنتُمْ هَـؤُلاء تَقْتُلُونَ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَتُخْرِجُونَ فَرِيقاً مِّنكُم مِّن دِيَارِهِمْ تَظَاهَرُونَ عَلَيْهِم بِالإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ وَإِن يَأتُوكُمْ أُسَارَى تُفَادُوهُمْ وَهُوَ مُحَرَّمٌ عَلَيْكُمْ إِخْرَاجُهُمْ أَفَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْضِ الْكِتَابِ وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْضٍ فَمَا جَزَاء مَن يَفْعَلُ ذَلِكَ مِنكُمْ إِلاَّ خِزْيٌ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يُرَدُّونَ إِلَى أَشَدِّ الْعَذَابِ وَمَا اللّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ]

“Then, you are those [same ones who are] killing one another and evicting a party of your people from their homes, cooperating against them in sin and aggression. And if they come to you as captives, you ransom them, although their eviction was forbidden to you. So do you believe in part of the Scripture and disbelieve in part? Then what is the recompense for those who do that among you except disgrace in worldly life; and on the Day of Resurrection they will be sent back to the severest of punishment. And Allah is not unaware of what you do.” [TMQ Al-Baqara:85].

We as Muslims will never accept this as normal and we must resume the correct expression of the Islamic laws under the authority of the Khalifah (caliph) in the manner discussed in the example of the Sahaba (ra).

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Imrana Mohamed
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir