On July 15th, I had the pleasure of covering the address delivered by Dr. Phyllis Chesler at the 2010 Aspen Counterpoint Summer Symposium. Aspen Counterpoint is an independent project founded by three residents of the Aspen Valley: Alan Altman, M.D., Elaine Sandler, and Judith King. Dr. Chesler could not personally attend the conference in Colorado, but she participated in a live teleconference that was recorded in a Manhattan studio.
Phyllis Chesler is currently an express blogger with Pajamas Media, a Professor Emerita of Psychology and Women’s Studies at the City University of New York, and is the best selling author of ”Women and Madness” (1972), “The New Anti-Semitism” (2003), and ”The Death of Feminism: What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom” (2005).
Focusing on the issues of Islamic gender and religious apartheid, the incessant demonization of Israel and the West, and the pervasive multi-cultural relativism phenomenon in the Western academy and the feminist and progressive movements, Dr. Chesler was introduced by Elaine Sandler. Referring to Dr. Chesler as ”a major commentator on today’s issues,” Ms. Sandler lauded Dr. Chesler’s seminal scholarly exegesis on honor killings of Muslim women that appeared in both the 2009 and 2010 issues of The Middle East Quarterly.
Concerning the deafening silence of the Western feminist movement in the face of Islamic barbarism, Dr. Chesler intoned:
Unlike my former feminist colleagues, I am not a multi-cultural relativist who refuses to take a stand against such brutal misogynistic Islamic practices as female genital mutilation, stoning and immolation of women, beatings, forced marriages, child marriages, and polygamy.
As a result of her maverick positions on these issues and more, Dr. Chesler has been labeled a dissident in the feminist enclaves she once inhabited, and has been subjected to the attendant acrimony and ad hominem attacks by her feminist peers.
“While I still consider myself a radical feminist, I am shunned by my feminist colleagues,” she explained, adding that, “I am on longer invited to speak at their conferences or functions and when I do speak, I require bodyguards and my work is no longer reviewed in the mainstream media.” Dr. Chesler attributes the reluctance to condemn Islamic atrocities against women among those in the Western feminist movement to being caught in the quagmire of political anachronisms: “They are terrified at the thought of being called a racist or being thought of as “politically incorrect” and as such, many of them are merely conformists. They still stand in staunch opposition to the Vietnam War and speak out against imperialism and colonialism. Issues that are no longer relevant.”
Rather than confronting the stark and frightening realization of the burgeoning growth of radical Islam and the existential dangers that it represents to Western civilization, Dr. Chesler says that her former colleagues project their bellicosity on Israel and the West:
My “comrades,” if you will, have become Stalinized and Palestinianized. They demonize Israel as a Nazi-like, apartheid state and hurl invectives against Israel for doing everything that the Palestinians and the Muslim world are doing to women, homosexuals and anyone who practices a religious faith other than Islam.
Dr. Chesler recollected that her fervent feminism was forged decades ago when she married a Westernized Muslim man that she met as an undergraduate student at Bard College in upstate New York:
I was only 20 and married my first love. He took me on a grand adventure to European cities and then we arrived in his birthplace of Kabul, Afghanistan where we stayed with his family. Upon arrival, my passport was immediately confiscated and I was forced to live in a posh, European-type purdah existence.
Her narrative includes a plethora of overt examples of oppression of women, including ghastly memories of women who could not leave the house without a male guard and were forced to sit apart from men on buses. She also spoke of women who had to wait until men were served first and those living dank lives under the mandated hijab. Women and children were routinely persecuted and no health care was available to them, she said, including access to an OB/GYN. After experiencing the increasing abusiveness of her ostensibly Westernized Muslim husband and his devoutly Muslim family, Dr. Chesler recalls that she tried to escape several times but to no avail. A bout of hepatitis would lead her to finally depart from her Afghan captivity as she gratefully made her way back to the United States.
In the sphere of Islamism where they claim a political position and not a religious position, boys and men are considered guardians of female chastity and women are perceived as shameful sex objects and breeders. Homosexuality and pedophilia among males is a ubiquitous presence in the Muslim world and always has been.
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Chesler is a giant, both morally and intellectually…and for speaking the truth, she is ostracized by her peers. She'll be remembered long after her detractors are forgotten.
For having the courage to speak the truth, Chesler has been ostracized by her peers. She towers over them.
I agree with every word of this article. The so-called "Feminists" need to be taken to task over their flagrant non-actions in challenging the Sharia induced persecution of women. They make me want to puke with thier defense of these practices as being cultural and nothing to do with Islam. The truth is they are afraid to face the facts about Islam and are relativist/PC/Multicultural drones.
Even the "gentler" forms of Islam – only wearing a hijab, for example, and willingness to let a woman work after marriage, are but scant improvements. In those forms of Islam, women are still property – to be disposed of as their overlord deems.
I've known too many women who were told "marry this man (for the money he would give the family), and you can divorce him later and marry your first choice." Sometimes they are able to, sometimes, it's too late.
Phyllis Chesler is simply a prize. She calls islam what it is.
The so-clled "feminists" who will not accept her are bigoted and stupid.
Another excellent article by Fern. I used to march under auspices with Jews Against Jackson in the 80s.
But no one else would sing this song. I tried playing the melody by ear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUDZkMwrwbE
It is more that scandalous that Western feminists ignore the plight of Muslim women who are subject to barbaric practices as an accepted daily reality. It is also interesting that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where honor killing is outlawed.
By turning the poisonous arrows agaist the wrong target (Israel,) not only do these organization distribute fasle information and promote bias view, but they wrong the real pocket of trouble that needs all their energies and attention–Muslim women living in societies that deprive them of their humanity and dignity.
I condemn Israel's brutal occupation of the Palestinian territories AND the brutal treatment of women by men, whether in the name of religion or not. The difference, as I see it, is that our government supports, or at least refuses to condemn, the Israeli government's brutality (much the same way as you argue that feminists refuse to condemn the brutality of some Muslim men). To me, it seems clear that brutality is horrendous no matter who the offender. One difference is that the US government acts on behalf of all it's citizens (and I couldn't disagree more with their continual defense of what I find to be indefensible acts by the Israeli government, while feminists represent only their own personal views. Our government has a higher responsibility and should condemn brutality wherever it exists (including in the US). It's refusal to do so, therefore, I find far more objectionable.
Dr. Chesler: I approve of your message regarding women under Islam. But: What's your stand on such issues as whether Clarence Thomas should or should not have been ratified by the Senate for his current seat on the Supreme Court?
Chesler is courageous and fighting the right battle. Finally someone decided to staqnd-up. The feminist movement just like many Muslim Arabs males (not exclusively of course) and the supporters of the Sharia, ignore the Universal chart of human rights.
What a shame in the XXI century.
Check out The Stoning of Soraya M….a grueling "true story" film that depicts the l repression and daily humilation, degradation and suffering of women in the misogynistic, cruel and barbaric nations. Where is NOW, where is Oprah and all the rest of the liberal crowd in denouncing the way women are treated in the oppressive nations of the ME???
I challenge Bill O'Reilly to have Dr.Chesler on his show. I'd like to see him try to justify his ridiculous views on France's burqa-ban to a women who has had the first hand chance to CHOSE whether or not to wear one under Islamic law . Or whether they really have a choice even in non-sharia law countries due to family coercion and intimidation.
Women sometimes become partners in their own subjegation. Leftist feminists are among them…by not rising to the task of educating Muslim women to throw off their oppression. It is difficult and therefore hard to start. Conservatives understand the sheltering of women expecially virgin daughters. There are shades of complexity in hte raising of healthy and independant females and therefore their male partners. This is the way it is meant to be. Females need to be respected in order for males to be respected. The stereotype of the Virgin of Guadelupe is an example in which the burqua is carried into other cultures (because this Mexican Virgin image is passive–looking down–and not relating to a child or other adult) This image is related to the thread of the Islamified Spanish Catholic church of the Conqustadors. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans will have to throw off that image to be free.
It's an absolute disgrace that Dr. Chesler continues to be abused – this time by the arrogant and shameful Western feminists and mainstream media. They know her story – she's told it enough times – and yet they treat her like this? If she were an Afghan girl who had escaped this horrible abuse, would these feminists and the mainstream media abuse her further? Or is it because she is a white woman that they ignore her? (Although I do note that Hirsi Ali gets dissed by these types as well – and here she has had to suffer the worst indignation of having her genitals hacked off and the gaping wound sewn together, with lifelong health problems, pain and discomfort.)
SHAME ON THEM. I have NO respect for these feminists who do nothing for Muslim women except pander to their enslavers and abusers. They are DISGUSTING. I no longer support women's organizations like NOW and the rest because of their blatant and cowardly disregard for the abuses of Islam.
Guess what, ladies? You are next, if sharia takes hold in your countries! Are you relishing the thought of being hidden under a burkha and relegated to the back rooms, where you can rot in isolation and obscurity? Not to mention the physical abuse to accompany the psychological and emotional torture by these depraved, misogynistic savages.
The Muslim Brotherhood and the rest of the fanatics would really love to see every last one of you privileged and liberated women reduced to household sex slaves and baby-making machines. If you believe otherwise, you are sadly deluded.
ISLAM IS TO WOMEN WHAT NAZISM IS TO JEWS. That's the bottom line. Deal with it.
.Dr.Chesler: I have been a fan of yours since I read Women and Madness. I want to tell
you that I am heartily sorry that you are being "boycotted" by feminists who have become
paralyzed by their Anti-Israelism. You are not alone, I and others are also in the position
of not being able to talk to other feminists with whom we have worked for years. Talking about Israel is simply out of the question and sadly, a number of them are Jewish.
I agree with everything you have to say about Islam and the West. I wish you well.
You don't have the courage to simply condemn Islam for it's horrid abuse of women, so first you have to affirm your "progressive" credentials by attacking the Jewish state.
Israel is not occupied any "Palestinian territory". Jews belong in Judea, just like Arabs belong in Arabia, and Russians belong in Russia. Somehow the "progressive" antisemites all miss this simple point: It is Arabs, who are occupying Judea.
There has never been an Arab country called "Palestine". Therefore there cannot be any Israeli occupation.
Additionally, the Arabs in "Palestinian Territories" are much better off than their brethren in other non-oily Arab countries. During the supposed "brutal occupation" their living standard has improved much faster than in other Arab countries, their life expectancy increased, as did the literacy, and lower infant mortality. Their numbers have increased from 700,000 in 1948, to the estimated 5 million today.
Most interestingly "Palestinians" are among the most obese people in the world. Especially their women are the third most obese in the world, way ahead of Americans, and only behind 2 other Arab countries. Men are the 7-th most obese in the world.
On average 38% of Pals are clinically obese with (BMI>30 Kg/meter sq).
The obsessive condemnations of Israel, are antisemitism plain and simple.
Even when such condemnations are coming from the Jews themselves. Antisemitic Jews are very common, just like the Jewish police in Warsaw ghetto, they hope to avoid being attacked by joining the Jew-haters.
I have been following this problem for something like 20 years now and it's only gotten worse. Add to that the fact that too many countries have allowed many ME immigrants. A friend sent an email to me from someone's book that demonstrated how the behavior of ME immigrants changed in accordance with their percentage of the population and gave many countries to demonstrate it. It was horrifying. I'm not a racist; indeed, with my family background, it's a bit of an impossibility. My family's like the UN but I really think we should stop their immigration. I'm sure most of them are nice people but the ones that aren't get in control and kill or threaten to kill the others….and there you have it! But, how nice can they be anyway if they force their wives to wear burkhas and have honor killings, etc.? I even read of a 13 year old girl who was beheaded for flirting and I have a feeling that there's no age limit on that 'kill a rape victim' thing.
As for Israel making peace with Palestine—-many Islamics have said that they do not feel 'honor bound' to keep their word on any treaty made with an infidel. So who's kidding who here?
Dr. Chesler, may you live long enough to see your voice be heard at the highest levels. If you are ostracized by feminists, know this says a lot more about them than it does about you.