The Worldwide Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has challenged Western nations to account for what he described as their insincere claims of defending women’s rights and urged Muslim women to rise as moral and spiritual leaders in today’s troubled world.
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad(atba) echoed this during his keynote address at the 2026 National Waqfat-e-Nau Ijtema UK, held in Islamabad, Tilford. More than 1,700 women and girls attended the gathering, drawn from Ahmadiyya Muslim communities across the United Kingdom.
The Waqf-e-Nau scheme, which has now been running for nearly 40 years, dedicates children to the service of Islam from birth. His Holiness noted that the programme has become inter-generational, with many of its female members now in their twenties and thirties and raising children of their own.
He said that Western governments frequently accuse Islam of suppressing women, while themselves wage wars that have devastated women and families in Muslim majority countries.
“Western powers have waged wars in which countless defenceless women and girls have been killed or had their homes utterly decimated. Their schools, universities and other centres of learning have been razed to the ground. Is that what the opponents of Islam mean by delivering rights to women and girls?” he said.
He argued that women’s rights movements in the West only emerged because their own religious and legal traditions had failed to protect women, forcing them to fight for freedoms that Islam had guaranteed over 1,400 years ago.
“From the outset, Islam unequivocally enshrined the principle of equality between men and women,” His Holiness stated.
The Caliph of Islam called on the Waqfat-e-Nau to equip themselves with deep religious knowledge so they could confidently counter misrepresentations of Islam in public life and the media. He cited Hazrat Ayesha, wife of the Holy Prophet(saw), as a supreme role model, noting that the Prophet(sa) himself declared that half of faith could be learned from her, and that even male companions were her students.
He praised Ahmadi women in the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries who have already been engaging media with what he described as exceptional proficiency, leaving critics of Islam “silenced and frustrated.”
“You shall be the ones who proudly stand at the vanguard defending Islam and illuminating mankind of its noble teachings,” he told the gathering.
His Holiness warned that without deliberate and consistent religious upbringing, future generations risked drifting away from Islam entirely.
He advised women facing difficult marriages or absent husbands to exercise patience and to bridge any gap in parental guidance for the sake of their children’s moral welfare.
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad(abta) encouraged the women not to feel ashamed of their religion or their modest way of dressing, even when people laugh at them or try to make them feel bad.
“Never forget that you have been born with a grand purpose , to lead the world back to its Creator. If ignorant people allege that you are imprisoned by your faith, prove them wrong and show them just how powerful and strong you are,” he said
“While discussions on gender equality continue globally, Islam has already established justice, dignity, and balanced rights for women. As Ibrahim Bin Twaha Foundation, we emphasize returning to the authentic teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as the true standard. May Allah guide us to practice Islam in its pure and correct form.”