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According to The Intellectual Extremism of Al-Azhar by Maher Jabra:

The statements of the former Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies for Women at Al-Azhar University, Dr. Souad Saleh, supported Ahmed Abdo Maher’s assessment. In a 2014 television broadcast of an episode of her program “Fiqh al-Nisa,” she claimed that Muslims have the right to enjoy sex slaves or “the king of the right” when Muslims triumph over non-Muslims. She informed her viewers: “If we fight Israel and defeat it, we have the right to enslave its Israeli women whom we captured in the war and enjoy them sexually.”

(see also the English version)

Are there other sources that confirm or refute this statement by the dean?

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    I guess SX needs more tag space. No room left for 'Egypt' or 'television' on this one...
    – Believe it or not...
    Commented Nov 9, 2023 at 15:46
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    Wikipedia more wryly notes "disputes were had between modernist intellectuals and traditionalists within al-Azhar" without much detail.
    – Believe it or not...
    Commented Nov 9, 2023 at 15:50
  • @Fizz some sources say that the traditional view was that people of the Book (Jews, Christians, etc.) are not supposed to be enslaved and that views like hers are more modern. Maybe I will ask about it on IslamSE.
    – DavePhD
    Commented Nov 10, 2023 at 14:59
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    @Fizz IslamSE moderator basically says the same thing she does: islam.stackexchange.com/questions/649/…
    – DavePhD
    Commented Nov 11, 2023 at 21:34
  • Rather TLDR that one, hadith overload. The O/T answer below (CFG) was a bit more illuminating, even if from another branch.
    – Believe it or not...
    Commented Nov 11, 2023 at 22:25

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Yes, a video of her saying this and a more detailed quote are available here:

"Those whom you own" (slavery) existed before Islam. It existed among all nations and countries, not just among pre-Islam Arabs. Anyone could trade in freeborn men and women. This is called the selling of freeborn people. It's like the selling of human organs and trafficking in freeborn humans today. But when Islam emerged, it put (slavery) into order, by limiting it to legitimate wars between Muslims and their enemies. If we fought Israel, which is plundering land, and is an aggressor against people and their faith... Obviously, it is impossible that we will fight Israel, even though Surat Al-Isra in the Quran foretells this, and nothing is beyond the power of Allah... The female prisoners of wars are 'those whom you own.' In order to humiliate them, they become the property of the army commander, or of a Muslim, and he can have sex with them just like he has sex with his wives.

So slightly different wording, but basically accurate.

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    Funnily enough she was trying to present that as an argument against other, more common kind of domestic sex-slavery, like importing a sex slave girl from East Asia, which she says is actually haram.
    – Believe it or not...
    Commented Nov 9, 2023 at 22:05
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    @user1271772 it took me 5 hours to find that and I’m still open to a different answer like if she is being mistranslated or something.
    – DavePhD
    Commented Nov 10, 2023 at 1:17
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    It looks like this translation is even worse "become the property" followed shortly after by "have sex with them just like he has sex with his wives" is well, to put it simply, a bad look.
    – Topcode
    Commented Nov 10, 2023 at 4:08
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    @user1271772 It could be a "push" Q, where the purpose is to support Israel by casting Gazans as sex-crazed monsters. These tend to pop up during emotional political events. I mean, a former dean of an Egyptian fundamentalist school said something ISIS would approve of ... and we're skeptical?
    – Owen Reynolds
    Commented Nov 10, 2023 at 17:51
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    @user1271772, This site has nothing against answering your own question and even encourages it. There is no problem with answering your own question, as long as both the answer and question are up to the site standards. And if the answer is lacking or not good enough you can always provide your own answer even to a self answered question.
    – SIMEL
    Commented Nov 12, 2023 at 1:44

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