Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, declared on Sunday, 02/22/2015, that his country has organized a military operation near Aleppo in Syria, where they transferred the shrine of Suleiman Shah (grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire) to Turkey temporarily, successfully evacuating soldiers who were guarding it in a process involving a hundred military wagons, including 39 tanks and 572 soldiers, and was done cross-border Pienaar guide center southeast of the country.

There is no doubt that the role played by Turkey of following the footsteps of its master America to contain the blessed revolution of Al-Sham has become clear for all to see, despite all the pain that Muslims suffered in the land of Al-Sham at the hands of the Pharaoh of this era. And despite all the fiery statements announced by Turkey to stand with the people of Syria, we have not, however, seen any action for it in reality, nor did we see Turkey's army move to save a child who died under the rubble or a woman who screamed Oh Mu'tassem. But this army moved to rescue the dead and left the living to meet their fate after the world has forsaken them without the slightest sense of responsibility before Allah (swt) firstly, and in front of the Muslim Ummah secondly, who does not see that its armies had been formed to defend and protect them from killing, displacement and to spread the message of Islam as mercy to the whole world; but Allah (swt) made the revolution of Al-Sham a revealing and exposing revolution, exposing the betrayals and traitor of the Muslim rulers; where this great victory for the army of Turkey in transferring the remains of Suleiman Shah after orders received by the American masters to the Turkish regime to train the opposition (moderate) on its territory to fight the faithful who refuse to follow the malignant American project. So will this work be an introduction and preparation for a larger role that Turkey will play against what they call terrorism? This is what the next few days will reveal.

O Muslims in the Blessed Land of Sham:

Your revolution has revealed each conspirator against it and exposed every agent and it therefore deserves to be described as revealing and exposing, so do not be fooled by some assistance provided by Turkey on the humanitarian level, with which it covered its deception to contain the military, including dissident officers described as officers and individuals, and to contain the politicians and produce them under the foresight of the American eye. This is what happened in the formation of the so-called National Coalition, which is in fact a US coalition, in attempt to market it as the sole legitimate representative of a revolution that gave up all that it owns. The regime in Turkey is not a charity, but is an agent regime founded to fight Islam and to prevent its return to life, after the Khilafah "Caliphate" was destroyed at the hands of the criminal Mustafa Kemal. If Turkey was serious about its stance, it would have worked to mobilize its armies to save you, it would have worked on providing you with qualitative weapons with which you can defend yourselves and destroy the regime whose crimes has affected humans, stones and trees. But it insisted on preventing you from having any reasons of force, and it insisted on being an arrow inside the American quiver, aimed at killing the Muslims.

Oh Muslims in Al-Sham, the Abode of the Land of Islam:

It is time that you remove yourselves from all fantasies, and to cut all ropes with the West and its cronies, and to hold fast to the rope of Allah and be not divided among yourselves, and to reject all those involved in the practice of traitor and treason, and anyone who tries to freeze your Jihad.  It is time for you to stand united on what pleases your Lord, and to put your hands with the hands of the faithful of your Ummah in the hard, dedicated and conscious to overthrow the regime with all its symbols and forms, and establish on its ruins a Khilafah "Caliphate" on the method of Prophethood, which will not be implemented except at the hands of the likes of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them all, such as Saad bin Muadh, Saad bin Obadah, As'ad ibn Zurarah and Usayd bin Hudayr, may Allah be pleased with them all.

Allah (swt) said:

((وَيَوْمَئِذٍ يَفْرَحُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ * بِنَصْرِ اللَّهِ يَنْصُرُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الرَّحِيمُ))

"And on that day will the believers [too, have cause to] rejoice * in Allah's succour: [for] He gives suc­cour to whomever He wills, since He alone is almighty, a dispenser of grace." [Al-Rum: 4-5]

Ahmad Abdul Wahab
Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Wilayah of Syria

During its ideological war against Islam, the Western secular capitalist world, has always given special attention to the matter of women's position and rights under Islam and Shariah. It associated the cause of oppressions such as forced marriages and honour killings to the Shariah and blamed it for the exclusion of women from education, social life and politics in various Muslim communities and countries. Islamic provisions which contradict Western ideals like gender equality or liberal freedoms constituted the most significant area for their attacks. Feminists and secular liberal politicians, media and organizations relentlessly attacked specific Islamic social and family laws, and declared Islam and its rule as misogynist under the label of being discriminatory and unjust towards women. A multitude of myths and misinformation were specifically propagated by secularists and Western orientalists, feminists and politicians regarding the status of women under the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate", the last seat of Islamic rule. They disseminated a narrative that became ingrained into the psyche of many in the West and Muslim world who consequently came to view the position of women under the Shariah through these lies. They promoted the idea that women under Ottoman Islamic rule were deprived of any rights, and treated as chattels and slaves - all in an attempt to create hatred and shame within Muslims towards their Islamic culture and heritage in order for them to embrace secular liberal capitalist values and systems and abandon any support for the resumption of the implementation of the Shariah under a Khilafah "Caliphate" state.

Many of these lies originated from male orientalists who lived during the Uthmani era, the majority of whom were never allowed to have any interaction with Ottoman Muslim women due to the strict separation of the genders that was implemented under the state. The harems, the living quarters of women within the houses of the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate" were the subject of many Western fantasies related to the enslavement, exploitation, and oppression of women. They were portrayed as sexually depraved places, where women were imprisoned and treated as mere objects to provide pleasure for men. However, entry into the harem institutions was forbidden for any man, other than the husband of the woman or her close blood relatives such as her father, brothers, or sons. Hence, it was impossible for these male Western orientalists to give first-hand accounts of the life of women under the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate".

Therefore many of the Western depictions of Ottoman women were born from nothing but European imagination and fantasies. Despite this, their false narrative of the degrading treatment, oppression, and imprisonment of women under the Islamic rule of the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate" was repeated endlessly over the decades. It was subsequently adopted and propagated by modern-day secular historians, feminists, and writers. Consequently this view point regarding Ottoman women became engrained into the consciousness of the West as well as in the minds of many Muslims. These Western depictions were often engineered to re-enforce orientalist notions of the superiority of the West over other nations and was used by Western imperial states to provide moral justification for their colonisation of the Muslim world to secure their political and economic interests in the region.

However, an examination of the judicial records of the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate", paint a very different picture of the lives of women under its Islamic laws. In the 1970's, American history professor R. C. Jennings conducted an extensive research on more than 10,000 Ottoman court records from the 17^th century, mainly from Kayseri, a city in Anatolia, Turkey. These records and the type of cases brought to court by the women of the time give an insight into their status and treatment under the Shariah and the rights they enjoyed. Inspired by Jennings work, after the 1980s, more and more researchers such as Haim Gerber, Abraham Marcus, Afif Marsot, Judith Tucker and Suraiya Faroqhi, also presented the various experiences of Ottoman women by researching the Ottoman judicial and estate records (Sicil and Tereke) in its various lands.

These records show that women under the Islamic laws of the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate" were protected from violence and forced marriages, were financially maintained by their husbands and families, could initiate divorce, and had their dowry and inheritance rights protected. In addition, they had the same economic rights as men and were able to manage their wealth and economic affairs independently of male relatives. This included the right to buy and sell property, run a business, form contracts, invest their wealth, and hold managerial positions in businesses run by others.

The elevated status and rights that women enjoyed under the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate" is re-enforced by the writings of Western female travellers and writers who were able to have closer interaction with Ottoman Muslim women and at times even permitted to enter the harems. They were therefore able to witness directly the nature of the lives of women within the state. Indeed, many of these female Western writers were critical of those who based their writings on hear say and fantasy. Lady Montague for example, wife to the British ambassador to the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate" in the 18^th century wrote in one of her letters to a friend, "You will perhaps be surprised at an account so different from what you have been entertained with by the common voyage writers, who are very fond of speaking of what they do not know."

These female writers rejected the idea that Ottoman women were imprisoned, enslaved, and degraded human beings; rather they witnessed the opposite. Julia Pardoe for example, a British poet, historian and traveller  wrote in her book, ‘The City of the Sultan and Domestic Manners of the Turks in 1836', "If, as we are all prone to believe, freedom be happiness, then are the Turkish women the happiest, for they are certainly the freest individuals in the Empire. It is the fashion in Europe to pity the women of the East; but it is ignorance of their real position alone which can engender so misplaced an exhibition of sentiment." Similarly, Lady Craven, also a British traveller and writer stated in her book ‘A Journey Through the Crimea to Constantinople' published in 1789, "The Turks in their conduct towards our sex are an example to all other nations...- and I think them (Turkish women) in their manner of living, capable of being the happiest creatures breathing."

These European women also refuted the claim that harems were abodes of sexual depravity where women were imprisoned and exploited, describing them instead as simply the living quarters of women within a household, and a representation of great respect with which they were viewed by Turkish Muslim men. For example, Lucy M. J. Garnett, a 19^th century British Folklorist wrote in her book ‘The Women of Turkey and their Folklore - 1890-91',  "The seclusion of Moslem women, instead of being, as is generally assumed, a result of their ‘degraded position', is on the contrary, the outcome of the great respect and regard entertained for them by the men of their own nation."

However, despite these multiple writings and records that contradict the popular Western narrative of the exploitation and oppression of women under the Shariah laws implemented by the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate", this popular false narrative continues to be widely promoted by secular institutions, feminists, and writers. Their aim is clearly to attempt to win a secular ideological war against Islam by continuing to make Muslim and non-Muslim alike fearful of the re-establishment of a Khilafah "Caliphate" state that rules by Islam alone.

Of course the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate" was not a utopian state for women. There were various problems that occurred within the state due to the misapplication of Islam that affected women negatively, especially towards the end of its rule when various Western ideas entered the Muslim lands. However, Western attempts to paint the whole landscape of Ottoman rule or the lives of women under Islamic governance through the lens of these problems that resulted due to weakness in the understanding and application of Islam is misleading and wrong.

It is therefore essential to dismantle the lies and correct the misunderstandings surrounding the status and rights of women under Uthmani Islamic rule. This is in order to remove the apprehensions related to what the implementation of Shariah in a future Khilafah "Caliphate" state would mean to the women of the Muslim world.

This series of articles, entitled "Women Under the Uthmani Khilafah "Caliphate": Challenging the Myths" seeks to achieve exactly this.

"The Turks in their conduct towards our sex are an example to all other nations...- and I think them (Turkish women) in their manner of living, capable of being the happiest creatures breathing."

From ‘A Journey Through the Crimea to Constantinople' (1789) by Lady Elizabeth Craven, British Traveller and Writer

Women's Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir