(Republika, National Daily, 8 of March, 2013) RI, a young girl sitting in the fifth grade of elementary school has eventually died. She breathed her last due to an infection of venereal disease she suffered. The poor kid is an innocent girl, just like her peers. She is a victim of rape by her immediate family, ie her father. RI is not the only case. Acts of harrasment and abuse against females often occurs in the environment and people nearby. Either the father, brother, uncle, grandfather or maybe neighbors.

Many experts concerned with the phenomenon of amoral incest (perpetrator of kin). The incident seemed to imply there was no longer safe place for girls. Families that are supposed to be a shelter and a role model, instead just ruin her life. "Who else can protect children?" The causes vary. Factors could be shut out of economic or obscene spectacle that is consumed daily. But, people believe when early Islamic education is implemented, the less likely it happens. In Islam for example, a 10 year old child should be separated from the parents' room. This includes females not to share a room with a brother.

Expert in families and children, Ustadzah Iffah Ainur Rochmah found that case of immoral acts committed by people nearby can not be solved only in a curative manner. It needs early prevention. Spokeswoman of Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) has also stated that in Islam there are two interacting zone, ie, public and private zone (al hayah al amm and al hayah al khash). The family is included in the private zone. Though members of family are close to each other, but there are Islamic rules that must be adhered to among them. One of the rules is how to dress. Even though they are still mahram, but be aware of how to dress, should not be free. "Rules to dress must be adopted, that is covering the body to the knee," she explained.

In addition to how to dress, there are special times that should be respected: after Isha' prayers, before Subuh, and before Dhuhr. Children can not be freely enter their parents in the room. The three times, Iffah explains further, before entering the room children should knock on the door asking permission. This is done to avoid adult activity seen by children. Islam teaches, once reaching 10 years old, children should sleep separately from their parents. Boys and girls were not allowed to sleep in a single room.

Iffah also regrets, there is still light punishment given to the perpetrators of sexual abuse against children. In this country's law rule, punishment for perpetrators of sexual abuse can reach 16 years of jail, but in fact the verdict was not until the fourth period of the sentence. In fact, there is only a year in jail. Figures show sentences make no deterrent effect on the perpetrators. Meanwhile, victims suffer prolonged trauma. She said the sanctions for perpetrators of rape in Islam are quite heavy. Starting from 100 lashes, stoning, cutting off hands or legs crossed, and even fought. According to her, the punishment is very worthwhile considering prolonged traumatic effect suffered by the victim.

Iffah also suggests concrete steps to eliminate the trauma for the victim. First, reassure the child that she is innocent. Make sure also that she was not "a bad girl" so her confidence is nurtured.

Psychologically, traumatic effect is not short-term. Therefore, it is better to create a new environment that makes children comfortable and overcome the tragedy. If they are still in the old neighborhood, it makes children hard to forget their cases. (Republika printed edition, Main Report, Friday, 08/03/2013).

Iffah Ainur Rochmah
Spokeswoman of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia

Headlines:

• How London's Gold and Silver Prices Are "Fixed"
• America: Extreme Anti-Islam Ads Now Running on San Francisco's Buses
• Russia Police Force Three Muslim Men to Trim their Beards at Gunpoint
• Iran Steps Up Weapons Lifeline to Syria's Assad
• North Korea Army Pledges ‘Merciless' Attack on US and South Korea
  
  

Details:

How London's Gold and Silver Prices Are "Fixed":

London's gold and silver markets face the possibility of a probe alongside other benchmarks into price setting, putting a century-old practice under the spotlight after the Libor rigging scandal that exposed widespread interest rate manipulation by banks. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has engaged in "a couple" of conversations about whether the daily setting of gold and silver prices in London is open to manipulation, Commissioner Scott O'Malia said on Thursday, although he said the situation is "fairly immature in its development. "The Wall Street Journal", citing unnamed sources, reported on Wednesday that the CFTC was examining various aspects of gold and silver price-setting, including whether it is sufficiently transparent. "What was stated in that story was more than I think we're doing," O'Malia told reporters at the annual Futures Industry Association conference in Florida on Thursday. "I think we've had a couple of conversations. We're looking at energy, indexes, prices, how they're set. We'll look at all of the range of index-setting," O'Malia said. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) also declined to comment on whether it was looking into gold and silver price setting, but said on Thursday it is feeding into a wider review of price benchmarks run by the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) - a global umbrella group for markets regulators.

America: Extreme Anti-Islam Ads are Now Running on San Francisco's Buses:

Anti-Islam ads appeared on 10 public buses in San Francisco on Monday, showing "inflammatory quotes by Islamic fundamentalists" accompanied by "an anonymous terrorist," according to Transportation Nation. The ads are paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, whose executive director, Pamela Geller, told the "New York Observer" in December, "I refuse to abridge my free speech so as to appease savages." The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (better known as Muni) says it cannot reject the ads, based on a September court ruling that decided New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority could not do so. The American Freedom Defense Initiative has bought space on San Francisco buses before, to display ads that read "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."

Russia Police Force Three Muslim Men to Trim their Beards at Gunpoint:

Police officers in Russia forced three men in a Muslim cafe to cut their beards at gunpoint, it has been claimed. During an inspection of a Muslim cafe in the Russian city of Surgut police officers apparently threatened some visitors with automatic weapons and with a lighter. One of the men claims an officer held a lighter to his chin and told him 'cut it off or I will burn it off'. The incident allegedly took place on March 3 in the cafe located near a mosque as the men were eating after evening prayers. One of the men said he was forced to use scissors to cut off his long beard. It is believed there were 15 officers in masks and they arrived in four cars.  According to Red Hot Russia, witnesses saw people in the uniform of riot police (OMON) burst into cafe place and force visitors onto their knees. Afterwards it claims several people were taken to the police station, where the law enforcement officers checked their documents. It is believed there has been an internal investigation launched by the Russian police. Russian news agencies have said the officers were implementing the rules of 'Peter the Great' who ruled the Tsardom of Russia in the late 1600s. He commanded all of his courtiers and officials to cut off their long beards and imposed an annual beard tax on those who refused.

Iran Steps Up Weapons Lifeline To Syria's Assad:

Iran has significantly stepped up military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in recent months, solidifying its position alongside Russia as the government's lifeline in an increasingly sectarian civil war, Western diplomats said. Iranian weapons continue to pour into Syria from Iraq but also increasingly along other routes, including via Turkey and Lebanon, in violation of a U.N. arms embargo on Iran, Western officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Iraqi and Turkish officials denied the allegations. Iran's acceleration of support for Assad suggests the Syrian war is entering a new phase in which Iran may be trying to end the battlefield stalemate by redoubling its commitment to Assad and offering Syria's increasingly isolated government a crucial lifeline, the envoys said. It also highlights the growing sectarian nature of the conflict, diplomats say, with Iranian arms flowing to the Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah. That group is increasingly active in Syria in support of Assad's forces, envoys say. Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran's U.N. mission, responded to a request for a comment by saying, "We believe Syria does not need any military help from Iran." Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, had no specific comments on the matter. The Syrian conflict started out two years ago as a pro-democracy movement. Some 70,000 people have been killed and more than 1 million refugees have fled the violence. A Western intelligence report seen by Reuters in September said Iran was using civilian aircraft to fly military personnel and large quantities of weapons across Iraqi airspace to aid Assad. Iraq denied that report but later made a point of inspecting an Iran-bound flight that it said had no arms on board. Much of the weaponry going to Syria now, diplomats say, continues to be shipped to Iran through Iraqi airspace and overland through Iraq, despite Baghdad's repeated promises to put a stop to Iranian arms supplies to Assad in violation of a U.N. arms embargo on Tehran over its nuclear program. "The Iranians really are supporting massively the regime," a senior Western diplomat said this week. "They have been increasing their support for the last three, four months through Iraq's airspace and now trucks. And the Iraqis really are looking the other way."

North Korea Army Pledges ‘Merciless' Attack on US and South Korea:

North Korea has pledged to carry out "merciless retaliation" on the South Korean and American "warmongers" who are holding a joint military exercise. Pyongyang's latest threats have come after a series of similar warnings against the ongoing drill jointly conducted by Washington and Seoul. The Ministry of the People's Armed Forces in Pyongyang has released a statement via the official Korean Central News Agency, saying: "Warmongers would be well advised to keep in mind that the DPRK is no longer restrained. "What is left to be done is an action of justice and merciless retaliation of the army and people of the DPRK."

Abu Hashim

A few days ago I attended a debate in London entitled, "Do Women Need Feminism". One of the panellists - a leader of a UK political party - argued that the continuing poor levels of female representation in the country's parliament and political system constituted one reason why feminism was still needed in the 21^st century. She is not alone in her belief. Earlier this week, while addressing an event in Juba organised by South Sudan's ruling party SPLM to mark International Women's Day, Angelina Teny, the wife of Sudan's vice president, called for more female representation in government to increase women's participation in the decision-making process of the country. She argued that women in South Sudan should push for 50% affirmative action in public offices.

The push for more women to enter parliaments and government posts is the adopted agenda of many women's rights activists, organisations, and the UN. In the Muslim world, many countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan have fixed quotas for women in legislative bodies, while in states that celebrated the Arab Spring, such as Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, there has also been much discussion as to how to guarantee women greater representation within new governments and parliaments. Tunisia introduced a gender parity rule in 2011 requiring political parties to run equal numbers of men and women as candidates on electoral lists for the constituent assembly, while in Egypt, women's organisations called for a 30% female quota in electoral lists for the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for April.

However, this call to increase female representation in parliaments and public office is founded upon a fundamentally flawed and misleading assumption: the belief that more female MP's or ministers will improve the status, political influence and economic rights of ordinary women within the state. Rwanda as an example is a country where women outnumber men within its parliament (56% of MP's are women). However, around 45% of its population remain below the poverty line, a figure that includes millions of women. In addition, exploitation and violence against women continues to be rife within the country. Similarly, in South Africa, 42% of the representatives in its National Assembly are women, yet the country has gained world notoriety for being one of the rape capitals of the world, and according to the South African Medical Research Council, has the highest rate of violence against women ever reported in research anywhere in the world. Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda are amongst the top 20 countries in the world for female representation of women within parliaments, yet levels of poverty, repression, and abuse of rights affecting women within these states are at deplorable levels. Hence, this claimed correlation between high quotas or numbers of women in parliament and greater rights for ordinary women within society has proven to be false. It follows the same flawed belief that affirmative action and racial quotas introduced by the US in the 1960's to tackle discrimination against African Americans and to increase their presence in senior positions would empower their black community. However, when Hurricane Katrina hit the country in 2005, the woefully inadequate response of the federal government in protecting the lives of large populations of African Americans in the South who lived in appalling poverty, illustrated to the world that very little had changed with regards to the US system's view or treatment of their black population - who today continue to be marginalized in education, housing, and employment across the country.

In addition, even when ruled by female prime ministers or presidents, as seen in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Turkey, the status, security, and standard of living of ordinary women within such states did not improve. Under Benazir Bhutto, it was not the women of Pakistan that benefited from her leadership but herself and family, having amassed assets of $1.5 billion from the wealth of the nation during her time in office, while millions of ordinary women struggled for basic needs. In Bangladesh, a country that has been under the rule of two women over the last 2 decades, millions of women continue to be subject to abject poverty, abuse, exploitation, and harassment which are at epidemic proportions within the society.

In truth, securing more female seats in parliaments or within government positions has in the main only aided an elite class of women to fulfill their personal political and economic ambitions, with no translation in bettering the lives of the masses of women within their societies, including in the Muslim world. Furthermore, when you have corrupt, incompetent and oppressive man-made systems and laws in our Muslim lands, primarily capitalist and secular in their basis that favour the rich and powerful over the general people; concentrate wealth in the hands of the few while impoverishing the masses; and give more value to the dollar than the dignity of women - simply increasing female quotas in parliaments or public office will have no bearing on improving the lives of ordinary women. It is clearly the system at fault in our lands that needs radical change to improve the lives of the region's women. Indeed, it is placing the woman or the man in the position of law-maker within a state, rather than the Creator of the world, Allah (swt) that results in the confused, defective organization of society, mass poverty, and the oppression of women that we witness today. Therefore as Muslim women who wish to bring real improvement to the lives of women in the Muslim world, we should not be seduced into embracing narrow and misled political battles of fighting for female quotas in parliaments or government. Rather, we should focus our full attention to uprooting the flawed systems in our lands and establishing in their place the Khilafah "Caliphate" that embodies sound solutions to mankind's problems based upon the Laws of Allah (swt), the All-Knowing, the All-Aware; a state that enjoys a historical precedence of protecting women from poverty, exploitation and abuse.

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz

Member of The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir