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Post date: Jan 07, 2010 10:37:23 PM
A lively group of 17 filled Jane Robinson's living room Tuesday evening 9/16/08 to discuss Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel. It's safe to say that most every Smithie who attended the bookclub discussion was deeply moved by this woman's jaw-dropping courage, supreme intelligence, and tenacity. Born in Mogadishu to traditional Somali parents and raised to adhere to strict Muslim law and the order of Somali clans, Hirsi Ali suffered female circumcision at the hands of her grandmother and endured years of abuse from her mother. After escaping an arranged marriage, she sought asylum in Holland where she would not only become a citizen but be elected to parliament. In the years that followed, she would speak out fearlessly against the oppression and victimization of women in Islam and push for social reforms in immigration. She would also receive countless death threats from Muslim extremists and be stripped of the Dutch citizenship she so cherished. Now living in the US under high security, she works for the American Enterprise Institute and continues to voice her controversial yet respected voice for the protection of Muslim women, children and immigrants.
Hirsi Ali is a strong, introspective writer. Her chronicle of the horrific events that she lived through forced many of us to examine our beliefs about cultural relativism and what she condemns as the Westerner's toleration of abuse in Muslim immigrant populations. This sparked a debate about the question of respecting religious practices while preventing acts that constitute abuse in a religious context. Many heard a call to action in her words and were inspired by her ideas of equality and freedom.
Kate Cohen passes along this link to an article from Eve Ensler's V Day organization which reports on a Kenyan girl who recently died of female genital mutilation: http://v10.vday.org/news-alerts/cry-of-a-girl
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