Muslim Brotherhood: Women Can't Speak and Remember at the Same Time

The below translation comes from a section of a 2006 Arabic-language essay entitled “Women and Political and Democratic Participation” (see page 21), produced by the European Council for Fatwa and Research, which is presided over by the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi. This is in the context of explaining some of the differences between men and women. This idea was also previously put forth by al-Qa’ida-linked Yemeni cleric ‘Abd-al-Majid al-Zindani. And of course it’s all based on Qur’an 2:282, as you’ll read below, which stipulates that a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man under Islamic law.

Try this one on your wife or girlfriend: “Honey, just slow down and think for a second before you tell me, because I know you can’t speak and remember at the same time.” Let me know how that goes…

[…] Time magazine, in its 31 July 1995 (pg. 39) publication, presented the results of a scientific study which displayed the image of a woman’s brain when she was engrossed in speaking and conversing. At that moment, both sides of the brain were completely occupied, being used to process speech. It also showed the image of a man’s brain when he was speaking, and only one side was being used. This makes him more precise (in speaking), because he uses the second side of his brain to remember, while the woman occupies both sides of her brain just to speak. This — Allah knows best — is the secret of the saying of Almighty Allah: “If there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her” [Qur’an 2:282]. […]

originally posted on Translating Jihad