Press Release
The Implementation of Allah's Shar' is Not a Charge or a Crime!
(Translated)

 Central Asia Online news website published a story that: "37 women are serving a prison sentence in the women's prison in the city of Dashoguz in the Republic of Turkmenistan for charges of engaging in prostitution, with one woman aged over 52, and others who have children and grandchildren. In fact, they do not work in the area of prostitution, but their only crime is that they are "second wives".

The Republic of Turkmenistan, is one of the Central Asian countries. It is a very closed area, and its ruling regime headed by Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is very cruel and oppressive. Women are prohibited from wearing the headscarf (hijab) and forced to wear the national dress. The situation is similar in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, where Muslim women who are committed to Islamic rulings (Ahkam Shariah) are tried as being terrorists, and polygamy is prohibited under the law. But the authoritarian policy of the Republic of Turkmenistan surpassed the cruelty, injustice and tyranny of both the Uzbek and Kyrgyz regimes by accusing women who adhere to the Islamic Shariah with prostitution, where there are many men who are married to more than one woman according to the rulings of Islam in Turkmenistan.

The "Second wife" has become a good source for the security services to hunt for victims. They use spies to find such families. If any of those women fall into their hands, they face very difficult circumstances, and face only two options, and not a third. Either to pay the fine of $5,000, or face criminal proceedings in accordance with Articles 137 and 138 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Turkmenistan where they are accused with one of two charges; the first one is forcing individuals to engage in prostitution through coercion, extortion, and the second is engaging in prostitution. If a woman is unable to pay the fine, she will be sentenced to two years imprisonment. In this case, 3000 - 4000 women have paid the fine, but 37 women were not able to pay and were charged with prostitution and therefore are serving sentences in prison!!

How bizarre!! Women who are actually working in prostitution are not subject to criminal accountability! Those prostitutes, who spread deadly diseases such as AIDS in the country, and the children out of wedlock, family disputes and the disintegration of families, and many other problems caused by their presence, remain unpunished, but instead they are given licenses, while chaste Muslim women who choose to live according to Allah's Law are subjected to punishment!! Disgraced are the faces of the oppressors.

O Muslims! Injustice and oppression will continue on earth because of the absence of the Islamic State that governs by what Allah has revealed, and this injustice will not be lifted except by the presence of a just Khalifah who takes care of his citizens fearing Allah in them and ruling by the laws and rules of Allah (swt). The Khilafah "Caliphate" state will ask and account you soon, O tyrant rulers for your crimes against this noble Ummah.

The Kaffir colonialists are doing everything in their power to maintain their corrupt systems based on falsehood, Shouldn't we Muslims be engaged instead in the work to establish the true Shariah of Allah (swt)? Is it not our duty to change this corrupt reality so that we may receive glory in the Dunya and the Hereafter?

We in Hizb ut Tahrir call on all Muslims to work with us to resume the Islamic way of life by establishing the second rightly guided Khilafah "Caliphate" on the method of the Prophethood to give authority to the laws of Allah (swt). Allah Almighty said,

(إنَّ اللَّـهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ)

"Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves" [Ar-Ra'd: 11]

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