Arab American Psychiatrist Wafa Sultan Harshly Criticizes the Status of Women in Islam

Wafa Sultan: If Islam really treated women with honor, we would see the positive consequences of that honor over the course of the past 14 centuries. Islam did not treat women with honor. On the contrary, it has distorted the concept of honor. My brother Rashid, I can call this pen a knife for 14 centuries, but it will never become a knife. It will remain a pen. Islam has turned these concepts upside-down, and has forced its followers to see things as their opposites -- to view killing and beheading as an act of tolerance, to view taking a woman captive as an act of compassion, to view the plundering of spoils of war as their right, and to view masturbation against a little girl's thighs as marriage. Thus, it has destroyed the intellectual structure of the Arabic-speaking nation, and has produced people who cannot distinguish between things and their opposites -- people with distorted thinking and warped mentality, as infertile as barren land, which cannot yield a thing.

The best proof of this is the reality of Islam. When the Prophet Muhammad married the child 'Aisha, this was not an act of honor toward her childhood. When Muhammad married Zaynab, the wife of his adopted son, after seeing her naked and desiring her, this was not an act of honor toward married women. When Muhammad married the Jewish woman Safiya, upon his return from a raid in which he killed her father, brother, and husband, this was not an act of honor toward her. The same goes for all his marriages. Accusing women of being "lacking in brains" is not an act of honor toward her. Human beings -- whether male or female -- are the property of their Creator. No human being has the right to own another. The subjugation of women reduces them to a level lower than beasts -- not to mention the laws of inheritance, testimony in court, the beating of a wife who refuses to go to bed with her husband, and "honor" crimes. Muhammad said in a hadith: "Three things spoil one's prayer: A woman, a black dog, and a donkey." Do they ever give this any thought? Do they realize that Allah chose the female body for his greatest invention -- creation itself? Wouldn't it be moral to bestow upon the female body a certain holiness, instead of viewing it as impure?

[...]

As for the intellectuals who claim that Islam honors women, they remind me of someone trying to catch two rabbits, which are running in opposite directions, and never catching either one. On the one hand, they try to convince the reader or the viewer that they are "liberal" and progressive, and support women's rights, while on the other hand, they try to please the clerics and their followers by claiming that Islam honors women. History will show that they were deceivers, not intellectuals.

In my opinion, in the Arab countries in particular, you cannot say that the status of women has nothing to do with Islam. You cannot deny that there is a connection between the two. Islam is an all-embracing faith, which intervenes in the smallest details of a person's life -- beginning with the way he should enter the toilet, and ending with -- excuse my language -- the way he should wipe his behind. Since Islam is an Arab religion, it has succeeded in erasing the culture, customs, and traditions of the Arabic-speaking peoples, more than in Islamic nations that are not Arabic speaking. Therefore, in the Arab world in particular, the status of women is an inevitable outcome of the Islamic teachings.

I firmly believe that the Islamic faith was created to serve Muhammad, and to legitimize his desires and urges. As evidence, we have 'Aisha's words: "I see that your Lord hastens to satisfy your desires." These words, which she said with innocence and spontaneity, embody the goal for which the Islamic faith was formed. Islam allowed men to marry infants in order to justify Muhammad's marriage to 'Aisha. Islam forbade adoption in order to justify Muhammad's marriage to the wife of his adopted son -- a thing forbidden by the pre-Islamic moral values of the Arabs. Islam permitted taking women captive and violating their honor in order to justify Muhammad's marriage to Safiya, after killing her husband, her father, and her brother that same night. Can you imagine any woman on the face of this earth witnessing with her own eyes the killing of her husband, her father, and her brother, and accepting the religion of their killer on the spot, and sleeping with him?! Can the human mind possibly accept such a story?

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[cano21]

This is an example of a moderate muslim. God bless her on her journey. I could live next door to someone like this and be all the better for it. I hope the Islamic world begins to listen to these voices.

[ainisugar]

@cano21

She left Islam - there is no moderate Islam or moderate Muslim - Islam is Islam

You should read Sultan's book : A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam. She is not only one famous apostate : Mosab Hassan Yousef - son of a Hamas leader, Italian journalist Magdi Allam, Mohammed Hegazy , Nonie Darwish, Fathima Rifqa Bary, Mark A. Gabriel, Akbar Gbaja-Biamilam Walid Shoebat, Bahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein el-Akkad etc

[beautifullugly]

Prophet muhammed has taught us to treat wife kindly " the best among all men is he who treat his wife good". Propeht has taught us that the heaven is at the feet of mother, prophet has taught us not to gaze women with wrong intention and ordered us to lower down your eyes if you see unknown women to escape from evil thoughts, prophet has taught all humans to kill the rapist so that he never repeat such act, prophet has taught us to respect mother and dont say even a word against her.

[Sep112001wasaMiracle]

"Arab American Psychiatrist Wafa Sultan" <-- This is one of the greatest joke. Wafa Sultan a psychiatrist? what else you wanna make her? After reading the title I have laughed a lot really.

[kaa7m]

actualy islam is not like that well not in all islam pleaces like herw here i live in israel islam is so like any other people woman work vote where whatever she wants do whaetver she wants and nothing soud like uae or something and by the way u had a mistake with your speach about the prophet u was way wrong

[algeriemonamour23]

hmara wech tkoun na3la tahet 3lik this is the same woman who says that teaching people about islam would mak them into terriorist shes sooo dumb i swear she forgets that ALLAH exists and that she is going to die someday na3la tahet 3liha deja alors...let her say what she wants ALLAH will judge her in the end

[horborhor]

لا استغرب طريقة حديثك عن الاسلام بهذه الطريقه لان المصادر التي اخذت منها معلوماتك والاحاديث التي نطقتي بها كلها مكذوبه وغير صحيحه من الافضل ان تتداركين هذا الخطأ الفادح وان تبحثي عن مصادر موثوقه تاخذين منها سيرة الرسول وكل المعلومات .. لان جميع ما اذكرتي غير صحيح البته ونحن درسنا في المصادر الموثوقه وراينا عجبا .. وراينا الحقيقه بام اعيننا ... عودي وابحثي عن المصادر الصحيحه الموثوقه ... المهم لا تاخذي كلامك من مصادر الشيعه فهم وضوعوا لهم قصصا من بنات افكارهم واحكاما جائره ..

[deadlybreeze]

well u can tell she really went deep into islam! LOL -.- she really has to back up the rubbish she is saying... i mean nothing is wrong with islams teaches women and men are equal .... its culture thats the problem. shes so ignorant its not funny.