Infidel

INFIDEL: Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Free Press: Biography: 353 pages.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born to a Muslim family in Somalia but as a child she lived in several countries including Saudi Arabia and Kenya. Her story is gripping. Her developing years, set amid the poverty and chaos of Somalia and Kenya, were spent in a family steeped in conservative Muslim faith but still deeply connected to tribal African traditions which included genital mutilation. As a teenager she voluntarily wore the hijab, the black cloak that protects a woman’s modesty in Islamic custom, and tried very hard to understand the Koran and be a true believer. Gradually, she came to reject the treatment of women in her society. When she was forced into an arranged marriage she traveled to Germany and then Holland, where she asked for asylum. In Holland she gradually qualified herself to become a Dutch citizen, obtained a college education and began testing and rejecting various teachings from her youth. Once she could speak Dutch she worked as a translator helping other immigrants, which gave her a comprehensive understanding of the plight of refugee families, particularly women. She eventually ran for the Dutch Parliament on a strong and controversial platform of immigrant issues.

Her views not only created controversy among the Dutch, but marked her as an infidel to Islam. The film director Theo Van Gogh was killed by a Muslim immigrant after helping Hirsi Ali create a film titled “Submission” about forced marriages of Muslim women and wife beating. From that time on Hirsi Ali required bodyguards to protect her life and eventually was forced to leave Holland to live in the United States.

Like Irshad Manji (Canadian Muslim woman of Pakistani parents) and Nonie Darwish (an American raised in Egypt), Hirsi Ali is pointed in her criticism of the treatment of women in Islamic societies. She also makes it very clear that she believes the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2007 are firmly rooted in and are inevitable products of Islamic fundamentalist movements that have been increasing in strength all over the world in the last 30 years. This book is an amazing personal story and also an eye-opening view of cultures and beliefs that are completely unknown to most of us.

SH