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This book is a memoir about Ayaan Hirsi Ali's struggles with growing up in a strict Muslim home, and her gradual understanding of how her religion was abusive to the happiness and freedoms of women. Born in Somali, and eventually becoming a member of the Dutch parliament before moving to the United States, she tells a brutal and straight forward story of what it was like living as a girl and later a woman under the strict rules of the Muslim Religion. Despite death threats, she has not shied away from attacking the religion that she once believed so strongly in. This book is a powerful exposure of what the lives of women are like in a very restrictive and controlling religion, that places women in a subservient role. This extraordinary story has really made me stop and think, and re-evaluate my own current attitudes about Islam. Many Muslim women, even in so called free thinking countries, such as Holland, are still living under strict Islamic laws that not only allows, but even encourages men to beat their wives, order genital mutilation of their daughters, and sometimes to even kill these women. This book is so relevant to what is going on in the world today. It helped me to better understand why we are so hated, to see that the roots of this hate are based in the original doctrines of the Muslim Religion, to understand that women who choose to wear the vail are not necessarily doing it because this makes them happy, but because that the culture tells them that this is the way to be pure, and the way to eternal reward after death. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in women's rights, and the basic beliefs of people who literally follow the teachings of the Muslim Religion. I believe in tolerance for religious freedoms, but I found this book very disturbing, and it has caused me to rethink some of my previous attitudes. Free countries must guard against believing so strongly in religious tolerance that the cost of basic human rights is compromised.
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali takes the reader on a journey. A journey of discovery from obscurity to fame, from the muslim brotherhood to atheism, from the backbreaking yokes of third world tribalism and feudalism to Western philosophy and the Enlightenment. Ms. Ali did not intend for this to happen. It all happened TO her, and she lays out her case for turning her back on her family, her cultural heritage and her religion in a brutally honest, often heart-wrenching manner. If the West has any doubts about what the leaders of the Islamic world are up to, they should be put to rest after reading this book. Islam is not a curious group of friendly, smiling, quaintly dressed members of the local mosque just down the block. It is an insidious disease that is slowly spreading throughout the world. Just as any dictatorial regime will maintain that its mission is peace and harmony with all men, Ms. Ali warns us not to be fooled by any faux ecumenism coming from muslim leaders. As she points out, the Koran is clear, Islam is man's only hope for salvation. And you shall either believe or be cut down by the sword of Islamic justice. Muslims do not wish to live peacefully side by side with members of other religions. Muslims cannot tolerate Western freedoms and values at all. The only coexistence muslims are interested in is the one where they are in charge. And it is the duty of every muslim to ensure the coming of this new Caliphate. Read Ms. Ali's book and learn the truth about the Islamic agenda from a woman who has traveled farther than most of us on her journey of discovery. Discover her passion, and discover the truth.
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I am certainly not one to gush over books. Authors are human, and write from their own biased perspectives. But every so often a book comes along that gives my own biased perspective a nice swift kick, and that definitely applies here. When it comes to religious beliefs and practices, I confess that I am one of those civilized types that gives every organized religion the benefit of the doubt. Or, I should say, I WAS one of those types until I read this amazing and thoroughly chilling tale. Ms. Ali, thank you for "opening a vein" and bleeding your story onto paper for us...I can only imagine what it has cost you.
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It takes a lot of courage to stand up against the views of your family, community, country, religion. Not many people would put their own lives in danger for the benefit of helping others. Ayaan's story is unique and her style very easy to read. It is very inspiring!
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This was a very interesting read and I was intrigued by the author's life from childhood until her escape to the Nethelands and subsequent involvement in politics there. However, I question Ali's complete disavowel of Islam and wonder if she, instead, should be condemning the oppressive cultural behaviors of Muslim extremists instead of the religion as a whole. For this reason, I would have liked a more in depth analysis of the positions that, ultimately, led to her leaving the Parliment and the Netherlands.
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