They were speaking at a one-day International Muslim Women Conference entitled “Strengthening of Family Values” attended by around 20 women participants from Sudan, Iran, Egypt, China, Germany, Morocco, Nepal, Mauritius, Kenya, Bosnia, Jordan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Malaysia and Thailand.
The international conference was organised by NWFP Ministry of Women Development in collaboration with International Muslim Women Union (IMWU).
The IMWU is a non-governmental organization and has a consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
The union started to work for the preservation of the rights of women throughout the world in 1996 in Khartoum, Sudan. Its membership is open to all Muslim women.
Dr Tuti A. Syafie, ex-parliamentarian of Indonesia and a member of the IMWU, said that globalization had affected different aspects of Muslim culture.
She was of the view that Muslims should preserve and adopt Islamic ways and values while facing globalization.
She further said: “Islam is a complete way of life and those who stray from this way face family disintegration.”
The problems of the modern world and rampant illiteracy in most of the Muslim countries had badly damaged the family unit.
Dr Ihsan Abdullah Algabshawi, General Secretary of the IMWU, said that the union was formed to give Muslim women a platform to express their vision about the modern world.
The Muslims all over the world, she said, were facing new challenges that threatened their identity and family breakup.
She urged Muslim women to reject anti-Islamic propaganda of the West. The IMWU, she added, was struggling for the rights of the Muslim women according to the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The participants at the conference urged women to play key role in the development of society.
Dr Safoora Naeem, a member of the IMWU, said that in an Islamic society the Muslim women could bring up their children and teach them Islamic values. The family unit in the West, she observed, stood shattered, badly hitting the children. “If family crumbles, children become the worst victims and such a society cannot be said to be a role model for all human beings.”
NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government would not only legislate but also implement laws related to women issues like customary practices and their right of inheritance because Islam had given them some rights.
NWFP Minister for Zakat, Ushr, Social Welfare and Women Development Hafiz Hashmat Khan also said that progress and prosperity of womenfolk, safeguarding their right of inheritance envisaged by Islam, elimination of Suwara-like un-Islamic customs as well as protection of women’s rights was on top of the agenda of the provincial government and it would be given a legal cover through the proposed Hisba Act.
Mr Hashmat said that establishment of a separate women department with the financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank was also under considerations so as to make coordinated and effective efforts for the welfare of womenfolk.
He said that about 100 handicraft centres for women had already been established in various parts of the province and more such centres would be established during the current financial year under the skill enhancement programme for self-employed women.
Other women speakers from different countries urged the women of the Muslim world to strengthen their family unit as the Muslim Ummah could only become strong when the family unit remained intact, and urged them to preserve Islamic values.