Hala Sarhan’s Shame about Muhammad
I wrote a previous essay about Hala Sarhan and discussed her shocking response upon learning that Muhammad, the so called prophet of Islam, urged women to breast-feed strangers so that they do not have sex with them. I described how this woman was devastated when the Muslim cleric, whom she invited to her show, told her that she should breast-feed her cook, her driver and her hair stylist so that she would not have sex with them. Hala Sarhan supposedly attained a high educational status and naturally, the talk about breast feeding was very alien to her. She then decided to open a new subject in her latest show: Sex and marriage in Islam. She invited another Muslim cleric who clearly explained that Islam turns women into a sex object. He said that men can marry many women but women cannot do the same. He told her that polygamy is a good idea because it allows women to be protected by men. Hala listened silently as this man kept infantilizing women. She had no problem with the fact that women are treated like a helpless child who needs the protection of a powerful figure. Hala’s education did not help her and her blind faith in a perverted prophet prevented her from questioning the fairness and justice of such a patriarchic religion. There was a glimpse of hope when one of her guests asked why Muhammad did not allow Ali, his son in law to marry another wife in addition to his daughter. However, they thought that Muhammad was a good man because he did not allow that. Alas, they forgot that he did it himself and kept 10 women at the same women. These women were clinging to any indication that Muhammad was humane and understanding, but they could not recognize that he was a sex manic who humped every woman he liked, including a 9-years-old and his daughter in law.
The question is: Why these women are so blind and why they can not see Muhammad for who is? Why do they cling to a religion who treats them like a sex object and to a prophet who only saw them as vaginas? Why do educated Muslim women continue to believe in a religion that clearly infantilize and marginalize them? The answer is clear. When society tells you that you are inferior and weak all the time, you believe it and you conduct your life from that perspective. Muslim women are so afraid of screaming for their rights because they do believe that they are inferior and weak. When Muslim women break these societal and Islamic shackles we may have hope.