Fear, Misery, and Destruction: A Gift of the Capitalist West to Women and Their Children
There Is No Way Out Except through the Khilafah (Caliphate)
(Translated)
Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 582 - 14/01/2026
By: Ustadha Hanan Ibrahim (Umm Ali Sa‘eed)

A wretched life is lived by women and their children under capitalist systems whose flames scorch the entire world, foremost among them the United States. Women in Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Gaza, the West Bank, and elsewhere, have seen these tragedies with their own eyes and heard them with their own ears.

Those women who remain in Syria now fear marriage and childbirth, lest their children live a miserable life like the one endured today.

As for Gaza, Al Jazeera reported that Palestinian women find themselves at the heart of the humanitarian catastrophe, produced by the genocidal war committed by the Jews in the Gaza Strip. The figures reveal the scale of the disaster that has befallen women and girls after two years of bombardment, destruction, and starvation.

Data from the Government Media Office in Gaza indicate that more than 12,500 women have been martyred, among them over 9,000 mothers who lost their lives during the war, while the number of widows has reached 21,200 women. Some 12,000 cases of miscarriage have been recorded due to the harsh conditions, at a time when 107,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women face grave danger to their lives amid shortages of food and healthcare.

Regarding humanitarian intervention priorities, a UN official stated that women and girls in Gaza need “everything,” from shelter and food to protection, noting that “one out of every seven households in Gaza is headed by a woman.”

The United States and its followers have committed, and continue to commit, the same crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and other Islamic lands. However, who facilitated, eased, and paved the way for the West to humiliate Muslim women? Who aided America, Russia, Britain, and France in roaming freely across our lands as they please? Are they not the rulers of the Muslims, Arabs and non-Arabs alike? Are they not the tools through which the West extends its hands over our honor, our wealth, and our resources?

In the absence of the Khilafah (Caliphate) State, the world is passing through a phase of unrest and anxiety unmistakable to any observer, amid an expanding map of conflicts. According to a report issued by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, the world is witnessing the highest number of conflicts since 1946, with all that entails of grave repercussions for international peace and security, and for the lives of millions of people. The report was issued on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

The report indicates that approximately 676 million women and girls today live in deadly conflict zones or within 50 kilometers of them the highest level since the 1990s. In 2023, documented cases of sexual violence in conflict zones increased by 50% compared to 2022, with 3,688 confirmed cases against women and young girls. The situation worsened further in 2024, with an additional increase of 25%. These numbers are not mere statistics; they are muffled screams expressing the collapse of the moral and humanitarian order in a world where wars are conducted upon the bodies of women.

Sudan, of course, has not been absent from this dark list, amid the most violent and bloodiest war in its modern history. UNICEF reported on 27 August 2025 that, after 500 days of siege, the city of El Fasher in North Darfur has become a focal point of children’s suffering, as malnutrition, disease, and violence cause daily child deaths.

It also stated in a press release that at least 600,000 people, half of them children have been displaced from El Fasher and the surrounding camps in recent months and within the city. Around 260,000 civilians, including 130,000 children, remain besieged in miserable conditions, cut off from aid for more than 16 months.

Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s Executive Director, said on 27 August 2025, “We are witnessing a devastating tragedy – children in Al Fasher are starving while UNICEF’s lifesaving nutrition services are being blocked.” UNICEF also reported 221 documented cases of child rape, including 16 victims under the age of five, and four children who had not yet reached their first year.

What level of human degradation could justify such sadism and barbarity? The report of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres goes beyond description; it draws attention to a painful paradox: “women are being killed in wars in record numbers.”

After the demolition of the Khilafah State, this catastrophic event that left devastating effects on the lives of women, their children, and their families—women lost a state that had long been their guardian and protector of their rights, as the Prophet (saw) said, «الإِمَامُ رَاعٍ وَهُوَ مَسْؤُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ» “The Imam is a guardian and he is responsible for his charge.” They were afflicted with death, destruction, poverty, and deprivation. Islam elevated the status of women, and there are many evidences in Islam obligating men and society to treat women with respect and to preserve their dignity. The Prophet (saw) said, «اسْتَوْصُوا بِالنِّسَاءِ خَيْراً» “Treat women kindly,” narrated by Muslim. Therefore, the Khilafah will make the dignity and security of women a foundational pillar of its policy, “The primary role of women is that she is a mother and responsible over the household and she is an honour that must be protected.” (Article 112 of the Constitution of the Khilafah State). The state encourages piety and awareness of Islamic Shariah rulings within society, which will enhance values of responsibility in how men view and treat women. The Khilafah will implement its political, educational, and media rulings, as well as all other available ways, to reinforce a respectful view of women.

Islam forbids any form of violence against women, whether in the home or in the street. The Prophet (saw) said, «لاَ تَضْرِبُوا إِمَاءَ اللَّهِ» “Do not strike the female servants of Allah.” Article 119 of the Draft Constitution of the Khilafah State states, “It is prohibited for any man or woman to undertake any work which could undermine the morals, or causes corruption in the society.” The comprehensive Islamic social system places the preservation of women’s dignity at the core of its Shariah rulings.

The Islamic social system provides a framework through which women’s dignity can be preserved in practice:

First: By reapplying the principle that a woman is not a commodity to be displayed.

Second: By creating a chaste and pure environment.
All of this helps to protect women and to end violence and other crimes against them. The result will be the establishment of a society in which a woman is a mother, a housewife, and a protected honor, safeguarded by the guardianship of men. “Marital life is one of tranquility; and the couple should live together as companions. The guardianship (Qawwamah) of the husband over the wife is a guardianship of care and not ruling. It has been made obligatory for her to obey him, and obligatory upon him to financially support her according to the expected standard of living of one like her.” (Article 120)

Islam has clarified the rights of the wife over the husband and regulated their worldly relationship through Shariah rulings that eliminate harshness and ill-treatment toward women. Court records from the era of the Khilafah show that husbands who were violent toward their wives were punished by the state, including imprisonment in some cases. Judges often required the husband to accept a condition stipulating that if he were violent toward his wife again, the marriage would be dissolved without the wife forfeiting her financial or marital rights.

The Khilafah will take intensive steps to preserve the dignity of its women, including mobilizing its armies against foreign forces that threaten women because safeguarding women’s honor holds a great and exalted status in Islam under the shade of the Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly-Guided Caliphate) upon the Method of Prophethood.