On Wednesday afternoon, we were catapulted to the year 2011, when the media coverage in Norway, right after the terror attack in Utøya pointed their fingers at the Muslims without any substantial evidence, as became apparent later. This time it was the attack on the office of the French satire weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo which resulted in twelve people dead.
On 8th of January 2014, the Turkish Prime Minister was speaking at the 'Protecting the Structure of Family and the Dynamic Population Program' in Ankara to announce a series of social reforms prepared by the government.
Under the new plan, the government is pledging 300 Turkish Liras for a couple's first child, 400 liras for the second, and 600 liras for the third, while easing conditions for new mothers to return to their jobs after maternity leave, including arrangements for part-time work for mothers. After the end of maternity leave, mothers with one child will have the right to work part-time for two months, mothers with two children for four months, and mothers with three or more children for six months. They will receive full wages while working part-time. Mothers who want to continue to take care of their children until they start school will have the right to work up to 30 hours a week so that they do not become detached from their professional life. The birth leave for fathers who work in the private sector will also be provided for five days. Women who give birth and who adopt children will be given the same opportunities, while women who give birth to disabled children will be given extra privileges.
A total of 24 transformational reform programs were prepared by the government to address Turkey's economic and social problems in efforts to improve living standards in the country, including serious steps to prevent violence in the family. The seven remaining reform programs will be announced in the upcoming days.
The AKP government emphasizes at every opportunity that women should not be forced to choose between motherhood and a professional career, and the government should provide measures to allow this balance, which is once again underlined through Prime Minister Davutoğlu's statement, "We're trying to come up with a balance that guarantees women's jobs while ensuring they do not neglect their children."
This announcement comes in conformity with the statements of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in November past year. He created an international uproar when stating that "women are not equal with men", continuing with statements like, "Our religion [Islam] has defined a position for women: motherhood", or like, "Some people can understand this, while others can't. You cannot explain this to feminists because they don't accept the concept of motherhood."
However, all the actions of this capitalist, secular system are through and through full of contradictions, as on the one hand it creates a climate where women feel pressured to work hence undermining their role as mothers, while on the other hand encouraging more working women to have more children. Additionally the cynical propaganda for Islamic values is simply exploiting the Islamic sentiments of Turkey's Muslim population to ensure their continuing support for Erdogan and his secular democratic party.
Therefore it is also no wonder that this government, as with every capitalist regime, is continuously and unsuccessfully trying to build a bridge between the natural needs of women and the requirements of the capitalist economic system. At the end, although all these plans promise to improve the situation of women, they still provoke reactions of the more secular spheres of society, who fear that women will be imprisoned in their homes, that employers will prefer men instead of women, while emphasizing the still unsolved problem of unequal payments to female employees and workers. - Political work under capitalist system seems to be a double-edged sword...
Having a look at the newly arranged minimum wages which are far away from providing for the most necessary needs of a 4-person family, the increasing numbers of unemployment which have reached a level of above 10%, the growing gap between rich and poor, and together with these the increasing levels of all kinds of social problems - it is all this that has generated an climate where many women have been pressured into work. At the end, all government policies to ‘ease' the path of mothers into employment have the objective of creating more cheap labor and thus resulting in the exploitation of more women within this capitalist economic system which already exploits men, rather than providing an improvement of living standards. This is while deceptively packaging this exploitation under ‘women's rights' as reflected in the statement, "women's fulfillment of their responsibility in social life and participating in social life upon their will" is "a human right" (Davutoğlu).
Seemingly harmless statements like "dynamic population as necessary for economic development" and that "a growing population will bring more responsibilities for the government as more children will need to be educated, and social services will be needed to provide for the growing population", forecast only more and more problems which will arise with every step taken by this system that is unable to provide comprehensive solutions to human problems.
This system, throughout the whole world, and especially in the Muslim world was and is unable to determine true and reliable values, norms and moral standards for every sphere of the society and social life. It did not achieve anything else than expanding the discrepancies and illnesses within the society and increasing moral and economic decadency. Therefore Davutoğlu's words of "the protection of our family life under any circumstance is of great importance for the protection of future generations, fundamental norms, our values and moral standards" are only an unsatisfying embellishment.
Additionally the earlier children reach the education of this system away from the values and world views of their parents - which is the naturally expected result of bringing mothers to work - the easier it is for the state to raise masses of people who share the same ideology, concepts and values of the state - a secular democratic capitalist-ideology-based state.
However, development and improvement undoubtedly can only be provided by an ideology and through the implementation of a system derived out of a sound ideology. Therefore it is essential to adopt the true ideology, and the true values, norms and standards of that ideology alone. This can only be provided by the Creator of the Universe, Allah (swt). However, it is obvious that the system provided by the capitalist ideology contradicts the system provided by Islam diametrically. So, making empty promises and speeches cynically embellished with Islamic values while at the same time implementing capitalistic solutions to problems caused by the capitalist system of governance itself, will surely not lead to an improvement of the standard of living of women, nor to the development of the society.
As neither the system itself, nor the laws, regulations or changes provided by this secular capitalist system are derived from Islam, the Qur'an or the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammed (saw), they are doomed to fail.
Therefore,
((وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللّهِ حُكْمًا لِّقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ))
"Who is better than Allah in judgement for a people who are certain [in faith]." [al-Maidah: 50]
((وَنَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ تِبْيَانًا لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةً وَبُشْرَى لِلْمُسْلِمِينَ))
"And We have sent down to you the Book as clarification for all things and as guidance and mercy and good tidings for the Muslims." [an-Nahl: 89]
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Umm Khalid
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
