International Women’s Day: 115 Years of Failure and Hypocrisy

News:

On March 8, 2025, International Women’s Day is observed, marking 115 years since its establishment in Copenhagen in 1910. Western governments and institutions celebrate the day with loud proclamations of progress, equality, and liberation. Yet, reality exposes their deep hypocrisy, particularly in their self-appointed mission to “liberate” Muslim women.

Comment:

The Illusion of Progress

Despite over a century of feminist struggle, international agreements like the Beijing Declaration and CEDAW, women worldwide still face violence, poverty, sexual assault, trafficking, and limited access to education and healthcare. While opportunities in education and careers have increased, so have mental distress, stress, violence, and sexual abuse—evidenced by the #MeToo movement. Women’s dignity is undermined, as they are reduced to commercial objects, pressured to meet unrealistic beauty standards, and forced to juggle career, motherhood, and societal expectations.

The secular capitalist system, which claims to empower women, has instead commodified them. It creates an environment where powerful Western men continuously undermine their rights and dignity. The rise of right-wing populism—reflected in leaders like Donald Trump—demonstrates society’s tolerance for misogyny, exposing the moral contradictions in the West’s claim to defend women’s rights and totally erodes the supposed progress of women's rights and wellbeing.

Western Hypocrisy on Muslim Women

While claiming to champion women’s freedom, Western governments simultaneously impose restrictions on Muslim women's attire. Even in Denmark, the birthplace of International Women’s Day, the so-called “Commission for the Forgotten Women’s Struggle” has proposed banning hijabs in primary schools under the pretext of ensuring Muslim girls’ freedom—an ironic contradiction that exposes the West’s selective and coercive approach to women's rights. They seek to "liberate" Muslim women through force and prohibition, all while Western women themselves cry out for emancipation from the oppression of capitalism.

At the same time, these same governments support Zionist forces responsible for killing thousands of women in Gaza and systematically abusing female prisoners. While they commemorate International Women’s Day with declarations of equality, they continue to uphold and finance oppressive regimes that perpetuate violence against women. This blatant double standard further exposes their moral inconsistency.

Islam: The True Guarantee of Women’s Dignity

Unlike feminism and capitalism, which have failed to provide true dignity, Islam offers a comprehensive system that protects women from exploitation, oppression, and sexualization. Unlike Western societies, Islam does not pit men and women against each other in a gender struggle, nor does it sell her false ideals or reduce her to a commodity. Instead, it establishes harmony between the sexes through defined roles, mutual rights, and responsibilities. Men and women are not rivals in Islam but complementary to one another, each fulfilling their role within a just and divinely guided system. The Khilafah (Caliphate) remains the only civilization in history to guarantee women’s rights, security, and dignity.

It is time for women—Muslim and non-Muslim alike—to reject the empty promises of secular feminism and seek true justice and protection in Islam.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Ibrahim Atrach