Press Release
Thousands of Afghan Children Face Death from Freezing Temperatures Due to the Absence of the Khilafah to Provide Them Support and Protection

On the 26^th of January, Save the Children reported that heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures in eastern Afghanistan is exacerbating health risks for thousands of children who are still living in makeshift tents five months after a devastating earthquake in the region. According to the UN, around 5700 families are still living in temporary camps in Kunar and Nangarhah provinces following the earthquake in August last year, with only plastic sheets to protect them from heavy snow, bitterly cold winds and plummeting temperatures. On the 22^nd of January, UNICEF stated that 270,000 children in eastern Afghanistan are at severe risk of contracting life-threatening illnesses, warning that prolonged exposure to cold and damp conditions increases the risk of hypothermia, respiratory infections including pneumonia, and other preventable diseases. The continued rain and snow fall in the country has also exacerbated the malnutrition crisis affecting the population by worsening conditions for families who rely on agriculture for food. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that the weather conditions are likely to deepen food insecurity for the people. According to UNICEF, 3.5 million children in Afghanistan are already suffering from acute malnutrition, of which 1.4 million are at higher risk of mortality – a crisis driven by economic collapse and reduced international aid which has left millions of children in critical need of food assistance.

The fact that thousands of children in Afghanistan face death from the cold, and millions of others face death from hunger, despite the Muslim lands overflowing in wealth, food and resources that could provide support and protection, is disgraceful and unforgiveable. This sad reality is the direct result of the Muslim world being torn apart into weak nation states as a result of the loss of the Khilafah (Caliphate) – the system which unified the Muslim lands into one powerful political, economic, and military state. This tragedy ripped the heart out of the unity of the Muslim Ummah, leaving Muslims in one land abandoned and isolated from Muslims in another, and forced to struggle with the aftermath of natural disasters, or face genocides, occupation and mass oppression alone, while regimes in other Muslim states ignored their plight and refused to come to their aid because they saw them as foreigners in foreign lands rather than their brothers in Islam. This is despite Allah (swt) saying,

[إِنَّ هَذِهِ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَأَنَا رَبُّكُمْ فَاعْبُدُونِ]

“Verily, this Ummah of yours is one nation, and I am your Lord, so worship Me.”[Al-Anbiya: 92].

Instead of using their wealth and military to aid or defend their Muslim brothers at their time of need, these nation states use their resources or armies to fight Muslims in neighbouring lands, such as the clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan, or to fight wars against their Muslim brothers for national interests or to fulfill the political agendas of Western colonial powers, as with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Yemen and Sudan, despite the Prophet (saw) saying:

«الْمُسْلِمُ أَخُو الْمُسْلِمِ لَا يَظْلِمُهُ وَلَا يَخْذُلُهُ وَلَا يَحْقِرُهُ»

“The Muslim is the brother of another Muslim; he does not oppress him, nor abandon him, nor look down upon him.”

Therefore, the solution to the desperate plight of children in Afghanistan and in lands across the Muslim world is not just charity or calling for more financial aid from Western governments or their institutions such as the UN or USAID which only deepens our reliance on foreign entities to solve our problems as a Muslim Ummah and leaves us open to manipulation, and the impact of sanctions and abandonment based upon their political agenda. Rather, it is to unify our lands, wealth, resources, and armies once again under the Islamic rule of the Khilafah based upon the method of the Prophethood. It was this unity of the Muslim Ummah created under this state that enabled Umar (ra), the second Khalifah of Islam, to transport large quantities of food from Egypt to relieve a famine in Madinah by revitalizing a canal that connected the Nile to the Red Sea, facilitating efficient relief shipments to lift the hunger of his people. Indeed, it is only through establishing the Khilafah that guardianship, protection, unity and prosperity created by the Islamic system alone, can return to our lands.

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