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Ayaan Hirsi Ali Becomes a Champion of Free Speech and Women’s Rights

written by Ann Jandafor Venus Rising Magazine

Taurus 08 Issue

Born in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1969, Ayaan Hirsi Ali was raised as a traditional Muslim in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. In 1992, Ayaan was married off by her father to a distant cousin in Canada. To escape this marriage, she fled to the Netherlands where she was given asylum and eventually citizenship. After earning her M.A. in political science, Ayann served as an elected member of the Dutch parliament from 2003 to 2006. While in parliament, she focused on immigrant integration and the rights of women in Dutch Muslim society. Now an American citizen, Ayaan tells of her profound journey from submission to triumph over adversity in her book, “Infidel.”

As a young child, Ayaan was subjected to female genital mutilation and much physical abuse at the hands of her family and community members. She was beaten by her mother regularly – one time simply because she got her period – and by a Quran teacher who cracked her skull when she protested his teachings. However, unlike many children in Somalia at that time, Ayaan received a good education in local schools and was reading Western books by such authors as Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, and Daphne du Maurier. It is from books like these that she learned about the idea of the sexes being equal. Although she decided to embrace Islam as a young girl, she increasingly found herself questioning its teachings. One day, while listening to a sermon on the many ways that women should be obedient to their husbands, she asked, “Must our husbands obey us too?”

In her book, Ayaan describes her father, Abeh, with much more affection than her abusive mother. But, having taken three wives, Abeh was not a constant figure in her life and Ayaan had very few supportive relationships in her childhood. After graduating from high school, Ayaan skirted several marriage proposals and found a way to put herself through secretarial school and find work for the U.N. in Somalia. After the Somalian government collapsed, she fled back to Kenya to live with her mother again. Her father reemerged in her life shortly afterwards and came home suddenly one day to tell her he had found her “a good match.” She had no serious complaint about the man her father arranged for her to marry except that she didn’t know him and had no desire to marry him.

After the wedding that she refused to attend, she was flown to Germany to await final immigration to Canada. Once in Germany, Ayaan was struck with awe that men and women were holding hands in public and women were not fully covered and chaos was not ensuing. She became immediately enthralled by European culture and its apparent stability and freedoms. She knew that other Somalians had gained asylum in Holland and she put herself on a train to “escape” life in an arranged marriage. 

In her early years in Holland, Ayaan worked in factories and as a maid. She quickly learned Dutch and got better paying work as a translator for Somali immigrants. During this time she witnessed how difficult it was for most Muslim immigrant groups to integrate into Dutch society, especially regarding the rights of women. Somalian girls were still being subjected to genital mutilation on kitchen tables and still being murdered in “honor killings” by male family members for such infractions as having a boyfriend. In Ayaan’s three years in government, she found her voice as an advocate for women’s rights and for an “enlightened Islam.” Ayaan makes the point in “Infidel” that

Societies that respect the rights of women and their freedom are wealthy and peaceful.

In 2003 and 2004 Ayaan worked with Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh on a film about the oppression of women under Islam. Shortly after the film’s release, van Gogh was murdered. The assassin, a radical Muslim, left a death threat for Ayaan pinned to Van Gogh’s chest.

In 2006, Ayaan resigned from parliament in the wake of a political scandal surrounding her application for asylum status in Holland. However, after much political and public debate, the Dutch authorities confirmed that Ayaan was indeed a Dutch citizen. Ayaan says that she had already decided to move to the United States before the decision was made.

Ayaan now lives with round-the-clock protection because her willingness to speak out and her abandonment of the Muslim faith have made her a target for violence by Islamic extremists. Disowned by her father, she has few ties left with her family. Currently a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank in Washington DC, Ayaan researches the relationship between the West and Islam, women’s rights in Islam, and violence against women propagated in the name of religious and cultural arguments.

No matter how you feel about Ayaan’s political views or her critique of Islam, “Infidel” is a powerful and inspiring story of an extremely courageous woman who will not be silenced. Ayaan was named one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” of 2005, one of the Glamour Heroes of 2005 and Reader’s Digest’s European of the Year for 2005.

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