Phyllis Chesler: Life Inside the Muslim World

Oct. 14, 2014 - 6:27 - Author Phyllis Chesler recounts her experience

An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir »

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The Phyllis Chesler Organization »

Op-Ed: Sharia-Life: A Geo-Political Time Bomb About to Explode

ARUTZ SHEVA: A7 [Fern Sidman] interviews Phyllis Chesler, whose new book "An American Bride in Kabul" is a fascinating account of her life in the Sharia-controlled Muslim world - one from which she barely escaped with her life, but which has begun to flourish in the USA.

Dr. Phyllis Chesler, internationally renowned pioneer feminist, professor, psychotherapist and prolific author and op-ed contributor to Arutz Sheva has a feverish schedule these days. On October 1, her latest book entitled, "An American Bride in Kabul" [UK] is scheduled to be released and the pre-publication copies have caught the attention of the media.

As she juggles interviews with major outlets and plans an international speaking tour, Dr. Chesler, sat down with Arutz Sheva in her very first interview to discuss her compelling memoir; both a personal narrative and scholarly monograph and written in her spellbinding and flowing style.

Chesler, brought up in an Orthodox Jewish home, eventually returned to her roots and is able to look at her period in Afghanistan with discernment and objectivity. This is a book whose time has come. » | Interview by Fern Sidman | Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Phyllis Chesler on Honor Killings

HT: Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna »

Should the West Ban the Burqa?
FOX NEWS: Early in June, Iran denounced European “intolerance” vis-à-vis the burqa. But is this true?

Many Muslims have come to the West in search of freedom and modernity; others have not. Controversy is inevitable. Islamist leaders believe that the West must “tolerate” the practice of gender apartheid as a “religious” right.

Western leaders have condemned the Islamic veil as a sign of hostility to Western ways and as a refusal to integrate. Muslim and ex-Muslim feminists and secularists have condemned the veil as a violation of women’s human rights and claim that it is not a religious requirement.



Many Muslim and ex-Muslim experts on Islam insist that the Qu’ran does not command women to cover their faces, bodies or hair. Women are merely told to dress modestly. They further point out that for part or all of the 20th century, many women in Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Afghanistan, stopped wearing the veil and wore western dress. Islamists claim that the veil is a religious requirement; that bikinis are worse than burqas; that veiled Muslim women are sacred and as such, should not be exposed to corrupting Western, secular mores.

All Europe is wrestling with the issue of whether to ban the Islamic veil.

On May 19, the French cabinet finally voted to ban the burqa. If parliament approves the bill this summer, female violators will be fined 150 euros; men who force their wives to cover their faces will be fined 15,000 euros and will face jail time. France did this despite a 2009 threat by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to “do all in our power and take revenge at the first opportunity against France.”

In May, 2010, a burqa-clad woman in Novara, Italy, was fined 500 euros; the city had previously banned burqas and niqabs. In April, 2010, the lower house of Parliament in Belgium approved a ban on burqas and niqabs. In April, in Madrid, a girl wearing hijab was sent home from school. Throughout Germany, women are not allowed to drive while wearing a burqa. As of January 2010, 53% of Swedes polled wanted a ban on burqas and niqab in public. In May, 2010, in France and Switzerland, women physically attacked women who were wearing a burqa or a headscarf.

Where does America stand on the Islamic veil? In his June 2009 speech in Cairo, President Obama had this to say: "The U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it." Muslim feminists have condemned the president, arguing that the West must fight for a woman’s right not to wear the veil as well. >>> Phyllis Chesler | Saturday, June 05, 2010

Phyllis Chesler, is an author and emerita professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies. She once lived in Kabul, Afghanistan. She may be reached through her website www.phyllis-chesler.com.

Geert Wilders on Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor, February 23, 2009

PAJAMAS MEDIA: A Dutch Hero Comes to Warn Us, Seek Our Support. The Incomparable Geert Wilders, MP, in New York City

“I have come to warn you of a great threat. Free speech is no longer a given, we must now battle for our birthright. We are looking at the end of democracy, the slavery of women, the death of gays. While there might be moderate Muslims, there is no such thing as moderate Islam. Islam is not a religion, it is a political and totalitarian ideology.”

Some would say that these are fighting words.

Indeed, Dutch parliamentarian, Geert Wilders, is fighting for Western liberty and Western values, as rooted in the legacies of “Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem.” This is the legacy he wishes to leave the “children of Europe,” as opposed to the legacy of “Mecca and Gaza.” Wilders is fighting for us all, his fight is our fight. As he said earlier today, “it is not about (him) but about Free Speech.” Today he may be a “criminal, tomorrow, anyone of us might be considered a criminal too,” for telling the truth about the danger that Islam poses to Western democracy. “Today I may be put behind bars. I am not the issue. Will free speech be put behind bars?”

“It is not 8:55pm. It is 11:55pm. We will lose everything.”

Wilders is very blond, quite trim, and well tailored, both matter-of-fact and charming in a way that does not come across in still photos. Wilders’ Dutch and Scandinavian entourage: other members of Parliament, such as Barry Madlener, of the Party of Freedom, (PVV), with whom I sat, and Lars Hedegaard, (the head of The Free Speech Society–Denmark), were all impossibly handsome, healthy, fluent in English, and heartbreakingly serious.

“The Left has hated Christianity for decades. Now, it demands respect for Islam. Guess why? The Left and Islam are both opposed to criticism of any kind. Where the Left and Islam come together, freedom will always suffer.”

Wilders attributes the erosion of Western sanity and courage to the infernal doctrine of “multicultural relativism which has fatefully weakened the West.” Such politically correct beliefs have led to the liberal Dutch Labor Party’s initiation of the lawsuit against Wilders. While the public prosecutor’s office declined to prosecute Wilders for “hate speech,” (hundreds of people wrote to the Prosecutors on Wilders’ behalf), the liberals appealed their ruling to the High Court in Amsterdam which actually overruled the public prosecutor’s decision. Wilders is on his way to appeal this last decision in the Dutch Supreme Court. He says, wryly, that the lawsuits may last until 2015. >>> Phyllis Chesler | Monday, February 23, 2009

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