Ayaan Hirsi Ali (b.1969,) originally Ayaan Hirsi Magan, is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist, writer, and politician. She is globally well known for her assertion that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with Western democratic values, especially those upholding the rights of women.
Projecting her views most extensively through her internationally best-selling autobiographical books, Ali has drawn high-spirited praise from her advocates and threats of death from her staunchest detractors.
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, to a devout Somali Muslim family, Ali spent most of her youth in Kenya and received a rigorous Muslim education. As a young girl, she submitted to traditional female genital cutting in keeping with her family’s Islamic rituals. In 1992, Ayaan was married against her will and fled to the Netherlands while traveling to join her husband in Canada. She successfully applied for political asylum in the Netherlands, changed her name, and adjusted her birthdate to make it hard for her family to locate her.
Ali studied political science at the State University of Leiden and graduated with a master’s degree in 2000. In 2003, she was elected to the Dutch parliament—there she started championing immigration reform and fighting for the rights of Muslim women. She became a target of death threats since 2004 when she authored a short film about the mistreatment of women in conservative Muslim societies; the movie’s director Theo van Gogh was assassinated for making the movie.
Ali traveled to the United States to promote her first book, The Caged Virgin (2006,) which criticizes Western countries’ failure to acknowledge and act upon the oppression of women in Muslim societies. Ali became an American citizen in 2013. Her other bestselling books include Infidel (2007,) Nomad (2010,) and Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (2015.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
However, some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.
—Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.
—Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Multiculturalism should not mean that we tolerate another culture’s intolerance. If we do in fact support diversity, women’s rights, and gay rights, then we cannot in good conscience give Islam a free pass on the grounds of multicultural sensitivity.
—Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Reality is not easy, but all this make-believe doesn’t make it easier.
—Ayaan Hirsi Ali
In the real world, equal respect for all cultures doesn’t translate into a rich mosaic of colorful and proud peoples interacting peacefully while maintaining a delightful diversity of food and craftwork. It translates into closed pockets of oppression, ignorance, and abuse.
—Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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