On December 25th, 1988, I received my visa from the American Embassy in Damascus. For the first time in my life, I would be able to express myself, as a woman and as an American citizen.Soon after arriving in Los Angeles, I wrote the first of many articles formulating my views on Islam. That article was published in a local Arabic newspaper. Despite my more tolerant surroundings, fear still prevented me from expressing my thoughts fully and freely.
After the horrendous massacre of September 11th, 2001, a new sense of determination was born inside me: I realized that I had only one life to live and that this life had to be lived as meaningfully as possible. I started to write with a weight of courage I had never previously possessed, and I have not ceased to expose intolerance and disrespect wherever I find them.
Of the many responses I have received, I share two that sustain me:
A man in Syria wrote to me:
“Wafa, your homeland is on the brink of famine, but your writings have become our daily bread.”
A Palestinian in his early twenties from the West Bank shared:
“If I had not discovered your articles, I would have ended up as a suicide bomber.”
I take up my pen once again, and I pour out my lifeblood onto the page.
Wafa Sultan is a Syrian-born American psychiatrist and an outspoken critic of radical Islam. www.wafasultan.org
