On 16 December a 23-year-old paramedic student was raped on a moving bus in Delhi, by six heavily drunk men who brutalized and tortured the victim for about an hour, and then threw her out from the moving bus. After struggling for her life in a Singapore hospital for many days, she succumbed to her injuries and died. The incident has triggered a tsunami of protests not just in the Indian capital but all over the country. Protestors, largely young students from schools and colleges, have squatted on the Rajpath in Raisina Hills, very close to the seat of power of the government of India. The protests have continued for days and there is no sign of a letup.

This is not a new phenomena or the first time women have been abused, tortured or raped in India. In fact this practice has become common in the world's biggest democracy. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of India shows that 24,206 cases of "rape" were reported in India in 2011, with a low conviction rate of 26.4 percent. This doesn't include "crimes against women" which covers molestation, kidnapping, and harassment, which saw 228,650 cases reported in 2011, with a conviction rate of 26.9 percent. Moreover, a large number of rapes go unreported. It is the fastest-growing crime in India, with almost 800 percent growth rate since 1971. The NCRB estimates that these incidents have risen from 7 per day to 53. In addition, approximately 7,618 women were murdered in 2006 in dowry-related violence. This is more than a 12 percent increase compared to figures for the previous year.

These heinous crimes against women are not restricted to India, rather they have been reported worldwide. In Bangladesh, available data from the Police Department give some indication of the extent of this violence. This data indicates that in 2004 there were 3081 crimes of dowry-related violence and 198 women were injured from acid attacks. In Pakistan 42% of women accept violence as part of their fate; 33% feel too helpless to stand up to it; and only 4% took action against it (Government study in Punjab 2001).

The Western states who are the torch bearers of democracy and Capitalism are leaders in this field too. In Canada 29% of women (a nationally representative sample of 12,300 women) reported being physically assaulted by a current or former partner since the age of 16. In United Kingdom 25% of women (a random sample of women from one district) had been punched or slapped by a partner or ex-partner in their lifetime. Also, 18.3 % of women in the United States have suffered a complete or attempted attack on their honour. Of these, 12.3% were younger than age 12 when they were first dishonoured, and 29.9% were between the ages of 11 and 17. (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010).

The current system being implemented in all these countries is no doubt the cruel, unjust and oppressive capitalist liberal system that cares nothing for human life or the dignity and honour of women. Under this system, millions of women are living with a constant feeling of threat, terror, injustice, inhuman treatment and degradation.

Under capitalism, the drive for profit takes precedence over securing the dignity of women. Women worldwide under capitalist systems have now come to understand that they are regarded only as objects and economic commodities, from whom the maximum financial benefit is to be extracted as we see in the entertainment, advertising, business and pornography industries, without caring an iota about how much they are disrespected or harassed in the process. In fact, this is the basis of Capitalism that places money over the morals of society and securing the dollar over securing the dignity of women. It does not cater to the social and moral values of society and the words respect, honour and dignity are alien to its cadre. In addition, the specific values of capitalism like the liberal values of freedom of expression or ownership sanction the exploitation of women's bodies to generate revenue, regardless of the fact that such degrading of women devalues their status in the minds of many men and leads to crimes against women. These liberal freedoms also give the right to men and women to dress in a provocative manner to entice one another, and for women to wear minimal clothing, exposing their bodies for the enjoyment of men. Under capitalist liberal systems, the media is allowed to show obscene movies and dramas, and vulgar internet websites and magazines are permitted to exist and are spread all across the globe in the name of freedom, all cheapening and devaluing the relationship between men and women.

Furthermore, the democratic system and its judiciary have failed to deal with these crimes effectively. As they have no viable solution to the problem, they try to resolve it using the trial and error method which always gives rise to a problem bigger than the original problem. Even with this current case, the Indian government has presented various proposals such as naming and shaming convicted rapists, increasing women only manned police stations, as well as harsher punishments for perpetrators to try and deal with the ever rising number of crimes that violate the dignity of their women. However, such suggestions are given with hope and guesswork with no surety that they will work to address this growing problem. This is the dilemma of the man-made system that it is restricted to the limited human intellect, which is unable to grasp all the aspects of an issue or causes of a problem be they social, economic, judicial, educational, etc to give a sound solution to the matter. Consequently patchwork solutions are often presented to issues that have repeatedly proven ineffective in preventing or treating problems - including protecting the dignity and wellbeing of women. In Western states as an example, numerous laws have been legislated against violence against women, sexual harassment, and rapes including prison sentences for some of these crimes, yet such laws have not even dented the scale of these problems within these states.

Another main cause of violence against women in the world has been the entertainment culture spread in India and also all over the world with the names of Bollywood and Hollywood. These film industries promote such obscene and immoral movies, dramas, songs and other material which degrade women and present them as an object, a commodity and a show piece. Many even present scenes of men directly violating the dignity of a woman, de-sensitizing viewers to such shameless violence. This derogatory attitude towards women through the influence of this film culture such as the Bollywood scene for which India has gained world-recognition bears a large part of the blame in nurturing dangerous and degrading views towards women in the minds of many men, contributing to acts of violence. Unfortunately, the same culture has been exported to the Muslim world for many years now in the name of "entertainment" with similar consequences. Allah (swt) says,

((وَلَوِ اتَّبَعَ الْحَقُّ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ لَفَسَدَتِ السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ وَمَن فِيهِنَّ ۚ بَلْ أَتَيْنَاهُم بِذِكْرِهِمْ فَهُمْ عَن ذِكْرِهِم مُّعْرِضُونَ ))

"If the truth had been in accord with their desires, truly the heavens and the earth and all beings therein would have been in confusion and corruption! Nay we have sent them their admonition but they turn away from their admonition." [TMQ Al-Mu'minun:71]

Alongside all this, the world's largest democracy, India, has failed to eradicate the deep-rooted traditional misogynistic views towards women that view them of lower status than men. This view that women are not worthy of respectable status, are just a possession like any other inheritance, and that daughters are a burden to parents is still prevalent in the country. This is reflected in the flourishing female foetus infanticide business. According to UNICEF, India is the only country in the world where the ratio of women to men has been declining over the years and this has been attributed to the continuing high levels of gender-selective abortion of female foetuses by parents who often view a girl as a financial burden to the family and hence prefer to have a male child. In the past three decades up to 12 million unborn girls have been deliberately aborted by Indian parents wishing to have a male heir. The 2011 census in the country revealed 7.1 million fewer girls than boys aged under seven, up from 6 million in 2001 and from 4.2 million in 1991. The sex ratio in this age group is now 915 girls to 1,000 boys, the lowest since records began in 1961. Such negative traditional attitudes towards women that devalue their status, work hand in hand with capitalist liberal values and laws in exacerbating the abuse and mistreatment of women by undermining their worth in the eyes of many men, and time has proven that democracies have been unable to eradicate them.

So what is the solution to this problem? The solution is a way of life, system and set of laws made by the Creator (swt) of human beings that is relevant for all times and all places as He (swt) is the All Knower and All Encompassing. He knows the very nature of human beings as He has created them and only He (swt) can give us laws under which societies can live peacefully and harmoniously, and under which the honour and dignity of women is protected and respected.

That way of life is Islam and that system is the one given by Allah (swt), the system of Islam, the Khilafah "Caliphate" that implements Islam upon a society and state. Islam has a creed that is based upon belief in a Creator, and a Day of Judgment and generates a sense of being answerable to His Lord for every action he performs. This automatically makes life meaningful and with a purpose. This negates the care-free mentality that the Capitalist creed tends to generate when it says that a human may do with his life as he pleases and this life is only for enjoyment and nothing else. Islam on the other hand teaches that actions done in this life have specific consequences in the Hereafter.This mindset decreases the crime rate within society, including acts of violence against women.

In addition, Islam views the woman as a human being and not as an object or commodity. She is given the highest status as a mother, cared for as a daughter, respected and provided for as sister and valued as a wife. Her honour and dignity takes precedence over securing financial gain and is protected under all circumstances in contrast to Capitalism which has proven its disregard and mistreatment of women. Islamic also rejects liberal freedoms including freedom of expression thereby preventing pervasive and obscene material from being circulated in the society. The man is not free to follow his desires under the Islamic system, rather he is the slave of Allah (swt) bound to follow His laws.

Furthermore, only a sound judicial system can effectively deal with the crimes against women effectively, as the Khilafah "Caliphate" system has done for over 1300 years, where women lived peacefully with their dignity and honour safeguarded and their lives protected. The perpetrators of crime against women were awarded the harshest of punishments and the victim was given speedy justice. The elite and powerful were treated as common men in the eyes of law, whether that be the son of a caliph or a ruler or a relative of a Qadi (Judge). These harsh punishments set an example for the rest of the public and the crime rate was very low.

Alongside all this, the education system and media of the Islamic state promotes the pure values to society and correct view of women and male-female relationships and the Islamic social system makes sure that she is segregated from non-mahrem men in private life and she is not exposed to danger in public life.

Therefore, the only way for humanity to rid itself of this obnoxious crime against woman is to shield her under the laws of Allah (swt), as was done for more than 1300 years where she lived a dignified and protected life. Allah (swt) says in the Quran:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا

وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّـهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا

"O mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord Who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from them twain hath spread abroad a multitude of men and women. Be careful of your duty toward Allah in Whom ye claim (your rights) of one another, and toward the wombs (that bare you). Lo! Allah hath been a Watcher over you." [TMQ An-Nisaa' 4:1]

Umm Musab
Member of The Central Media Office
of Hizb ut Tahrir for the Indian Subcontinent