Every feminist should know Phyllis Chesler's story. And every defender of human rights should stand with her. "How my eyes were opened to the barbarity of Islam: Is it racist to condemn fanaticism?," by Phyllis Chesler in the TimesOnline, with thanks to JE:
Once I was held captive in Kabul. I was the bride of a charming, seductive and Westernised Afghan Muslim whom I met at an American college. The purdah I experienced was relatively posh but the sequestered all-female life was not my cup of chai — nor was the male hostility to veiled, partly veiled and unveiled women in public.When we landed in Kabul, an airport official smoothly confiscated my US passport. “Don’t worry, it’s just a formality,” my husband assured me. I never saw that passport again. I later learnt that this was routinely done to foreign wives — perhaps to make it impossible for them to leave. Overnight, my husband became a stranger. The man with whom I had discussed Camus, Dostoevsky, Tennessee Williams and the Italian cinema became a stranger. He treated me the same way his father and elder brother treated their wives: distantly, with a hint of disdain and embarrassment.
In our two years together, my future husband had never once mentioned that his father had three wives and 21 children. Nor did he tell me that I would be expected to live as if I had been reared as an Afghan woman. I was supposed to lead a largely indoor life among women, to go out only with a male escort and to spend my days waiting for my husband to return or visiting female relatives, or having new (and very fashionable) clothes made.
In America, my husband was proud that I was a natural-born rebel and free thinker. In Afghanistan, my criticism of the treatment of women and of the poor rendered him suspect, vulnerable. He mocked my horrified reactions. But I knew what my eyes and ears told me. I saw how poor women in chadaris were forced to sit at the back of the bus and had to keep yielding their place on line in the bazaar to any man.
BackgroundI saw how polygamous, arranged marriages and child brides led to chronic female suffering and to rivalry between co-wives and half-brothers; how the subordination and sequestration of women led to a profound estrangement between the sexes — one that led to wife-beating, marital rape and to a rampant but hotly denied male “prison”-like homosexuality and pederasty; how frustrated, neglected and uneducated women tormented their daughter-in-laws and female servants; how women were not allowed to pray in mosques or visit male doctors (their husbands described the symptoms in their absence).
Individual Afghans were enchantingly courteous — but the Afghanistan I knew was a bastion of illiteracy, poverty, treachery and preventable diseases. It was also a police state, a feudal monarchy and a theocracy, rank with fear and paranoia. Afghanistan had never been colonised. My relatives said: “Not even the British could occupy us.” Thus I was forced to conclude that Afghan barbarism was of their own making and could not be attributed to Western imperialism.
Read it all.
Too bad you did not read this:
"The fourth Caliph, who was Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin, said just a few years after the prophet's death that "The entire woman is an evil. And what is worse is that it is a necessary evil."
The revered Islamic scholar, al-Ghazali, who has been called 'the greatest Muslim after Muhammad,' writes that the role of a Muslim woman is to "stay at home and get on with her sewing. She should not go out often, she must not be well-informed, nor must she be communicative with her neighbors and only visit them when absolutely necessary; she should take care of her husband... and seek to satisfy him in everything... Her sole worry should be her virtue... She should be clean and ready to satisfy her husband's sexual needs at any moment." [as quoted from Ibn Warraq]
The many opportunities denied women under Islamic law, from giving equal testimony in court to having the right to exclude others from their marital bed, is very clear proof that women are of lesser value then men in Islam. Muslim women are not even free to marry outside the faith without being killed by their own families.
Contemporary Muslims like to counter that Arabs treated women as camels prior to Muhammad. This is somewhat questionable, given that Muhammad's first wife was a wealthy woman who owned property and ran a successful business prior to ever meeting him. She was even his boss... (although we're sure that changed after the marriage).
Muslims hate the truth, they really hate it when the infidels know the truth....we being force to learn by the Muslims, and we should thank them for forcing us to learn their ways....
...because we are learning, we know now that we must:
Ban Muslim Immigration.
At best, Islam elevates the status of a woman to somewhere between that of a camel and a man.
The immutable, ever-relevant Qur'an clearly allows women to be kept as sex slaves, and this is hardly something in which Muslims can take pride.
"How my eyes were opened to the barbarity of Islam: Is it racist to condemn fanaticism?"
Fanaticism is a temporary mental condition and can be changed. Race is commonly understood to be a set of genetic traits which cannot be changed.
Fanaticism is not racism. Condemning fanaticism is condeming an ideology, set of beliefs or mental state - it is not targeting the machine; rather it is targeting the software instructions of the machine.
Why is this so difficult to acknowledge?
Just goes to show that you can physically take somemone out of the ummah and put him in the 21st century but you just can't remove him mentally from that cesspool known as Islam unless he really wants to be freed. Esgtbrown is right- ban Muslim immigration.
I read this yesterday, and of the many noteworthy points Ms. Chesler makes, this one made the greatest impression:
" My relatives said: “Not even the British could occupy us.” Thus I was forced to conclude that Afghan barbarism was of their own making and could not be attributed to Western imperialism."
Another story that relates to what Professor Chesler experienced in Afghanistan.
http://cheatseekingmissiles.blogspot.com/2006/11/burqas-and-blazing-women.html
Am I supposed to sympathize with this very stupid woman? Was she that desperate for a husband?
"...because we are learning, we know now that we must:
Ban Muslim Immigration."
WE ALL must change the language we use: Ban Muslim COLONIZATION.
This paradigm shift must occur in order for people to accurately identify the problem and consider it worthy of action. Just like HOMICIDE bombers, when our language is precise it will change the argument for change.
WE can't let the bastards win. Churchill understood the war of words. It is important.
johnb:
Please take a little time and read up on Professor Chesler before you start calling names.
Mackie
Mackie: If I sounded harsh - it was on purpose.
"I was the bride of a charming, seductive and Westernised Afghan Muslim whom I met at an American college."
Shouldn't this woman have had a clue about how Islam treats women? Are we to regard her as a mere child in need of protection? I'm sorry, but anyone who has had their eyes and ears open for the past thirty years at least should have had a clue about what kind of treatment women are afforded by both Islam and the culture of that area.
johnb:
I of course don't know your age, but how many of us knew about Islamic practices in Afghanistan in 1961 when a 21 year old impressionable young female college student married a charming Afghani Muslim?
Her efforts to confront the ideology and the scourge of Islamic intolerance rank right up there with the likes of Ayaan Hirsi aly,Nonie Darwish, Brigette Gabriel, and even a touch of the late great Oriana Fallaci.
johnb - You would think that as a feminist, a scholar, and "a natural born rebel and free thinker" (read smart-ass) she would have shown a little initiative and due diligence before marrying into the Afghani intelligentsia. As Mackie points out, she was very young when she chose this path, but I can not help but think of the thousands of young men and women 21 and younger serving with distinction in our armed forces, working in responsible civilian jobs, etc. Ah well, she payed the price and seems to have learned from the experience.
Mackie:
I read the TimesOnline article and didn't realize this happened in 1961 so I'll cut Chesler some slack. OTH I'm old enough to know that, when I found that a former acquaintance from university had reportedly married an Iranian man in the late 1970's, I thought "what a fool - good luck, you'll likely need it." The inferior status of women in both Islam and that area of the world has certainly been reasonably well known for many years.
OT but maybe not too far.
"Mullah Mahmood, who is accused of helping the Taliban detonate suicide bombs, was caught Tuesday in Kandahar province while wearing the all-encompassing Islamic veil worn here by women, NATO said." (from an AP story on the wires right now)
So much sexual confusion in Islam. And male cowardice.
Let this be a warning about Burqa wearing in Western countries. Ban it.
"Thus I was forced to conclude that Afghan barbarism was of their own making and could not be attributed to Western imperialism."
the above is the key sentence.
Women are merely animals disguised as humans. Know your place, girl!
http://debate.domini.org/newton/womeng.html
"That Sadr ad-Deen Shirazi classifies women as animals is a delicate allusion to the fact that women, due to the deficiency in their intelligence and understanding of intricacies, and due to their fondness of the adornments of the world, are truly and justly among the mute animals [al-haywanti al-sa^mita]. They have the nature of beasts [ad-dawwa^b], but they have been given the disguise of human beings so that men would not be loath to talk to them and be compelled to have sexual intercourse with them. That is why our immaculate Law [shar'ina al-mutahhar] takes men's side and gives them superiority in most matters, including divorce, "nushuz," etc."
--
How did she get out?
How did she get out?
Posted by: Infidel Pride
Infidel Pride,
when I first read about this lady (and I am sorry I don't have the link any more, but it could have been on Frontpage), I think she got hepatitis and they decided to ship her back to the US.Does anyone else have more info?
In defence of her I was one of those people who had no idea what marrying a muslim would be like till I saw that movie "Not Without My Daughter" with Sally Field.I could hardly believe it.
This article has made this MSM 'blog.
Have more of a say here: spot the muslim posters!
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/phyllis_chesler_writers/#commentsmore
A powerful revealing account of the injustice carried out by the non-citizens. How much more witness do we, people of the civilized world, need? We the civilized people have to stand up for justice! We need to stand up for justice!
I don’t know about you, but I have God! He’s telling us this depravity and perversity of human beings has got to stop! The degradation of women to baby-making factory animals has got to stop! The rearing of children in neglect has got to stop! The sexual exploitation of women and children has got to stop!
Non-citizens of the world: you are baskets of sin!
The suggestiveness of what this lady claims. A non-citizen can adopt the brain of a citizen, in all ways, shape and form. Yet, the essence of the non-citizens remain the same. The threat! The menace! To civilization! This is more than enough evidence for the people in control: Do not be fooled by them; they come to you as wolves in sheep’s clothing.
At the last count there were 203 comments on the Times web site, I believe Robert Spencer was mentioned and various quotes from the koran.
More People are finding out the truth.
Kamil International Ministries organization in Raleigh raised the serious wrath of CAIR a few weeks ago because they gave Pamphlets to high school girls that were entitled 'Do not marry a Muslim man'.
I think I'll send them this ladies story and a donation.
I read some of the 200+ comments at TimesOnline following the Chesler article and must say as a Roman Catholic, American citizen who loves my God, my country, and loved my classes in British literature and British history, I was horrified at the self-loathing and tu quoque comments posted by British citizens. I knew they hated us Americans but I had no idea how much they hate themselves, Great Britain, and the Christian religions. I am not talking just about postings by Islamic immigrants within Britain. People with names like Clive, Melanie and Ian piled on Ms. Chesler and DEFENDED Islam (of course not one cited sura or verse). Somehow in reading her article all they could comment on was their badly skewed understanding of the Crusades and an almost Pythonesque conception of the Spanish Inquisition. While they spewed out the most vitriolic comments about Catholics, Christians and Americans, they all the while derided Ms. Chesler as the "bigot" and "racist". Again, no Koranic or aHadith verses were used to bolster their claims that "this is not Islam".
How will our English speaking brothers and sisters across the pond survive this? It is almost as if they are trapped in a kind of death wish or perhaps Stockholm Syndrome en masse. God, please raise up another Churchill.
Jesus asked: "When the Son of Man shall come again shall He find any faith on earth?" Not if He lands anyway near Leeds, Manchester, Postsmouth or London.
British posters please understand that I say this with true love and concern especially for some of my friends in south England that I am trying to convince to emigrate to the US. I am now actually AFRAID for them.
Plague_On_Both_Houses_
You made a valid and what should be viewed by many as a simple,distinction between the "temporal mental state" of fanaticism and those factors which make up a person's racial genetic characterzations. Most opposition to such an obvious distinction in these apples and oranges concepts would be mostly from two camps:
1) Those who are driven,through various states of fanaticism and mental illness,toward seeing a grand set of diabolical puppeteers behind everything and who consequently, wax hysterical on any topic they regard as perceived "persecusion" of "underpriviliged" persons.
2) That camp which deliberately invokes certain catch phrases,(certainly popular and pc-hip phrases as have been making the rounds of college campuses worldwide for decades now), in order to win over those in the former camp. A sort of morbid brainwashing waxwork for unsuspecting tourists.