Refutation of the Capitalist Western Thought by Hizb Ut Tahrir

The fundamental mistake of the West lies in its view regarding women, regardless of whether the view is old or new. When its civilization was founded, all of its theories and legislations were focused on men alone. When its shortcomings were apparent, calls for the liberation of women and advocates for their rights emerged. Thereby the West adopted the idea of gender equality, whilst this idea is in itself invalid. However, the statement of equality indicates a previous judgment that establishes separation and distinction between two matters. This indicates that the original judgment within the West is the distinction between men and women. Moreover, equality requires the precedent of a model, upon which the comparison is made for equalizing. Thus equating women with men means holding men upon as a model upon whom comparison is to be made, making men as the basis upon which equality is based.

This obviously means that the Western legislators considered men in legislation in origin. Then the Western legislators later amended, annexed and appended women within the original legislation. Thus the origin of Western legislation is allotment to men alone, rather than both men and women together. This means that the original view about women did not change, even though some legislation has been amended. The problem persists in the Western societies, appearing in various manifestations, such as the battle of the sexes and genderism. Western feminist movements of various waves perceived this matter. They perceived that the problem was not in the legislation, but in the original view itself, i.e. in the philosophy of legislation itself. This is because treatments, such as rulings and principles that regulate and organize relationships, emerge from the original view about the relationships, their purposes and about whom they are concerned.

Accordingly, feminism no longer became restricted to the rights of legislation or gender equality, based on male­ female duality. Instead, feminism developed into a call for reviewing the basis of the societal organization as a whole, including the social system with what branches out from it, in terms of concepts about man, woman, marriage, children, motherhood, fatherhood and family. The new idea in the West focused on transforming the concept of sex according to the measure of duality, i.e. two sexes, into the concept of genderism, which expresses the cultural and social formation of an individual, leading to the sharing and merger of roles in society.

For advocates of genderism, the difference between man and woman is not to be determined biologically. For them gender is to be based on the culture, ideologies and beliefs that shape the features of the identity. Thus the difference is determined culturally. This is summarized by the famous quote of the French existentialist philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, who said, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman (French: On ne nait pas femme, on le devient)” in her book, The Second Sex (French: Le Deuxieme Sexe). So, according to their view, the role of a woman in society does not form as a result of her biological characteristics. Instead, it forms according to the social and cultural conditions that are prevalent in the society. Thus every person must determine their gender identity. So a male determines himself to be a man or woman, whilst a female determines herself to be a woman or man. According to their view, society must abolish the differences in sexes and gender roles, ensuring everyone determines their gender identity as they wish.

This opinion is also an evidence for its own invalidity, refuting itself through self-contradiction. The self- contradiction is because the Western body of gender studies itself asserts that culture is what shapes the features of the identity of the human, whether male or female. This implies that men and women are merely the consequence of the culture that is prevalent in any given society. It is to be noted here that cultures and ideologies are innately multiple, diverse and contradict one another. Moreover, the West and the United Nations have themselves acknowledged cultural diversity and the obligation of tolerating them, acknowledging cultural diversity as a universal human right. It is thus natural for the identity of a Muslim woman for instance, to be different from that of a Western woman. In this way, the call to gender has unraveled its own thread before it was entwined, plucking out what it planted by its own hands.

There is no way to impose the view of gender according to their understanding, except by ending cultural diversity in the entire world, unifying all opinions upon their ideas, in order to create a universal, mono-culture of genderism. This is what the United Nations ensured by the globalization of the Western gender concept, imposing it upon all other nations. This also contradicts the idea of cultural diversity and its distinctive determinants, as stipulated in the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2001, supported in the West through its anthropological, sociological and other studies. Here, the supporters of genderism are only able to say, there is no contradiction between universal rights and cultural diversity. However, we must ask them, who determined genderism as a universal right? How can genderism be truly universal, when peoples and cultures are against it and even Western society is divided in this regard?!.

Moreover, asides from self-contradiction on cultural grounds, genderism is also invalid because acknowledging the existence of the biological difference between male and female, on the one hand, whilst denying its influence or role in the systems of the society,

on the other, is a contradiction. Legislation over abortion rights, for instance, that is adopted and defended by the genderism movement is not related to culture. Instead, it is related to the biological nature of a women, as it is specific to women and not to men. Beyond this, allowing a pregnant woman to get paid maternity leave is not related to the culture. Instead it is related to the biological nature of women, which is specific to women and not to men.

As for a woman to then say that she is a man in the event of abortion and pregnancy, because her self- determined gender identity is male, humanity must be held with at least such esteem that a response is not warranted. Indeed, the sensed and witnessed reality affirms the necessity of taking natural, biological factors into consideration when legislating, for instance. Biological factors are considered when enacting laws and treatments related to persons with disabilities, children and elderly. It is natural to observe the differences in the nature of man and woman. However, the important question is, when is it necessary to observe biological differences and when it is not? This is the place where ideologies and the evidence for their validity or invalidity are discerned. Accordingly, the old and modern western views about men and women are erroneous views in their foundations. The correct view about men and women that is convincing to the mind and agreeing with human nature (fitra), that is capable of saving Western society and humanity as a whole from loss, getting lost, misery and despair, is the view brought by Islam. Allah (swt) says,

“And the male is not like the female.” [TMQ Surah Aali Imran 3:36].

Allah (swt) says,

“And that He creates the two mates, the male and female.” [TMQ Surah An-Najm 53:45],

Allah (swt) says,

“And [by] He who created the male and female” [TMQ Surah Al-Layl 92:3],

Allah (swt) says,

“O people, indeed We have created you from male and female.” [TMQ Surah Al-Hujaraat 49:13],

Allah (swt) created male and female as two different sexes. There is no discrimination against anyone in this natural or biological difference, between the two sexes i.e. male and female sexes, whether he is a believer or disbeliever, whether he is white or black, whether male or female. Despite Islam’s acknowledgement of this natural difference, it does not take account of it in its view towards the two sexes. Instead, it takes account of their kind as a whole i.e. considering male and female as humans alone, which is in contrast to all other philosophies. So man is a human and woman is a human. Neither of man or woman differ over another in terms of their humanity. No one is discriminated against in anything of this humanity. Allah has prepared both of them to engage in the arena of life with virtue of their both being humans. He (swt) made them live determinately in a single society. He (swt) made the survival of the species dependent on their union and their mutual existence in every society.

So, it is only permissible for any one of them to look at others just as they look upon themselves as they are all humans enjoying all the characteristics of humans and their dispositions of life. Allah (swt) has created life energy for both of them, which is the same life energy that is created for all. He (swt) has also created organic needs, such as hunger and thirst, for both of them. He (swt) created survival instincts for both of them, as well as the procreation instinct and spiritual instinct in both of them. It is the same organic needs and instincts that are found in all. Allah (swt) created the faculty of reason in both of them and it is the same faculty of reason found in all. Thus the intellect found in man is the same as the intellect found in woman, when Allah (swt) created the intellect of humans. There is no separate intellect for man, on the one hand, and for the woman, on the other.

This is the basis upon which one must proceed. Thus the woman is not supposed to be a problem and her rights are not to be demanded separately. The matter is not about whether she is equal to man or not for both of them are humans and they have same characteristics and life dispositions, although they differ in their sexes. When Islam assigned Shariah responsibilities, it imposed them on both man and woman. When Islam elucidates the Shariah rulings to treat both of their actions, Islam neither looks at the issue of equality, comparison and similarity between both of them, in any case, nor does it take account of such aspects. Instead Islam only looks at the specific problem that needs to be treated. So Islam treats any specific problem by considering it as a human problem, without looking at whether it is a man’s problem or a woman’s problem.

So, the treatment is for the action of humans in the problems that arise. It is not the treatment for the man, on the one hand, and the woman, on the other. When Islam made rights for a woman, it imposed on her obligations. Similarly, when Islam made rights for a man, it imposed on him obligations. Islam made rights and obligations related to their interests and as treatments for actions, by considering the actions being specific to a specific human. Allah (swt) made the treatment as one alone, when necessitated by their human nature for the treatment to be one and the same, whilst He (swt) made treatments as different, when necessitated by both of their differing respective biological natures, to be different.

Accordingly, Islam does not discriminate between men and women in its call to humanity to believe. Islam made responsibilities related to worship such as Salah, Fasting, Hajj and Zakah, one and the same, for both men and women. Similarly, Islam made morals and their characteristics one and the same, for both men and women. Islam also made the rulings of transactions, such as trading, loans, guardianship and others, one and the same, for both men and women. Islam obliged learning and teaching upon both men and women, without any discrimination. Allah (swt) has legislated the rulings related to humans, by virtue of being human, as one and the same for both men and women. Allah (swt) says,

“Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so - for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.” [TMQ Surah Al-Ahzab 33:35],

As for the rights and obligations and the Shariah responsibilities related to the biological nature of woman by virtue of being a female, on the one hand, and that which is related to the nature of man, by virtue of being a male, these rights and obligations, these responsibilities, differ between men and women. This is because in these cases, it is not a treatment for humans as a generic absolute. Instead, it is a treatment to the types of humans within the genre of humans, whose human biological nature is distinct to that of the other type. Therefore, the treatment should be for this kind of human and not for all humans generically. Accordingly, Islam distinguishes women with rulings related to her femininity, such as rulings regarding menstruation, pregnancy and child birth. Islam also made for her the right of the custodianship of children to the exclusion of man. Islam made the work to earn money as permissible (mubah) for women, whilst making it obligatory for men. Fighting is not obliged upon women, whilst it is obligatory upon men.

This is the view of Islam towards the male and the female i.e. man and woman. It is the view based upon their human nature and not upon their respective sex or social diversity. It is the correct view that removes the conflict present today around the world between men and women, making them as brothers and sisters, who work together for the stability and advancement of society.