Press Release
Women's Rights Enshrined in Egypt's New Draft Constitution that is Born from a Regime that Assaults and Terrorises its Daughters is as Worthless as Dust!

On 28th December 2013, the Associated Press and other media reported that female students at Al-Azhar University, protesting against the oppressive rule of Egypt's brutal military regime were assaulted by Egyptian security forces. Riot police raided the prestigious Islamic institution on Saturday to break up protests and fired teargas at the crowd, turning the centre of Islamic learning into a battlefield. In one incident, it was reported that plainclothes security with sticks grabbed a woman by her veil, then kicked and manhandled her away.

Other footage and pictures also show female students being brutally beaten and terrorized by security forces, one student being dragged away in a headlock by a police officer, while a video from a previous demonstration at the institution shows a man with a wooden board with nails attacking female protestors. The Interior Ministry stated that 15 women had been arrested during this recent crackdown. All this is taking place at a time when the regime is preparing the ground for a referendum in January on a new draft Egyptian constitution which mentions the guarantee of various political, economic, and social rights for women, including ironically protection to women from "any form of violence". This clearly does not include state-instigated violence! What hope can the women of Egypt ever have for a secure and dignified future from a secular constitution and system born from and ruled over by a dictatorship that carries a total disregard for the dignity of its daughters and unleashes its forces to terrorise, abuse, and arrest them in the most brutal fashion for simply raising their voices against oppression?

O Courageous Sisters of Egypt! Your brave stance against this ruthless dictatorship is truly inspiring. However, alongside calling for its removal, the women of Hizb ut Tahrir urge you to make your struggle one of replacing it with the system of Allah (swt), the Khilafah "Caliphate". This state alone will guarantee the protection of your dignity and facilitate rather than fight your right to express your political voice and account those who govern you, as well as offer sound solutions to all your economic and social problems through the rule of Islam. Do not accept your heavy sacrifices to be lost by allowing the non-Islamic, illegitimate democratic system to pollute your land that will govern through the flawed laws of men rather than those of Allah (swt), leading to nothing but disaster and humiliation. You have witnessed with your own eyes how this fickle, discredited system can be manipulated, discarded and overthrown by those who champion it and how it has utterly failed to secure dignity, basic needs, and justice for millions living under its dark shadow in the West and East. So reject further cycles of this democratic experiment that only promises further cycles of bloodshed, turmoil, poverty and fear, only to end up with the same oppressive rule!

O Sincere Sons of the Egyptian Army! How can you witness the abuse of your sisters without response when Allah (swt) has entrusted you with the heavy responsibility of protecting them from harm? Moreover, how can you bear to serve behind a merciless, cowardly leadership that is willing to terrorise, dishonour, and imprison the honourable daughters of Islam but has refused to raise a single gun to the murderous Israeli state to protect your Palestinian brothers and sisters, rather it has colluded with the Zionists in their oppression? Embrace your true honourable role as protectors and liberators of your Ummah and regain your dignity, high status, and great rewards in the Hereafter by giving your Nusrah (material support) to the establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate", that will mobilise you to make your legacy one of bringing great victories for Islam, making you heroes of the people, and not those they despise.

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz
Member of the Central Media Office
of Hizb ut Tahrir