Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Ali, a courageous advocate for Women, Speaks Out Against Oppressive Islam

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the personification of strength.

Born in Mogadishu, Somalia and raised in a devoutly Muslim household, Ali grew up in an oppressive Islamic society yet surfaced to tell her tale.

Ali, now in her 40s, has lived a life rarely fathomed anywhere but within the pages of an adventure book. After surviving genital mutilation as a child, fleeing to the Netherlands to escape from an arranged marriage in her twenties, condemning her former faith, and surviving multiple death threats, Ali is now a staunch and outspoken advocate for women and human rights in Islamic countries.

Advocating for justice in the Muslim world has not been easy. After receiving asylum in the Netherlands in 1992, Ali earned a degree in political science at the University of Leiden and served in the Dutch parliament from 2003 to 2006 — often speaking out passionately about the plight of women in the Muslim world.

In 2004, Ali partnered with director Theo van Gogh to create a film about the Muslim oppression of women, called “Submission.” Several months after the film aired, a Muslim radical named Mohammed Bouyeri murdered van Gogh on the streets of Amsterdam, stabbing a note to his body warning Ali that she would be next. Since then, Ali has been in hiding, protected by 24-hour security.

Now living, writing, and speaking out in America, Ali continues to reflect on the life she left behind. In a recent conversation with The Daily Caller, Ali explained that she never realized what a risk she was taking when she left Islam and began speaking out against it.

“When I first started publishing and responding to interviews I didn’t know that my life was in danger,” she said. “And when I got the question, ‘So are you, yourself, Muslim?’ The answer I gave was no, I’m secularized and I realized too late that that answer meant, as a Muslim, I am an apostate and inviting violence.”

According to Ali, Islam, as a template for societal organization, is a complete failure.

“If you look at nations that have adopted Sharia law, you see a number of things: you see an upsurge in the violations of human rights — rights of women, gay people, and religious minorities. You see a dictatorship at all times even though it is sometimes presented as a democracy. For instance, because Islamic law is divine law who ever takes control of government puts himself in the position of God,” she said.

Growing up in a culture that shuns women is incompatible with the ideals of feminism, Ali told TheDC, saying that she got the strength to leave Somalia and the culture in which she was raised from within herself and from circumstances in her life that were unusual for women in her situation — specifically having the opportunity to get an education.

“I was sent to school and there are so many Muslim girls who never go to school or never get to finish it,” she said. “Another circumstance which put me in a lucky position is my father left our family when I was about 10- or 11-years old and he returned when I was 21. And that’s the period when most girls get married off. So, if I had been married off at 16 or 17, I would’ve been much more vulnerable — not as strong. But at 22, after having observed what happens to these young women who are married off and how their lives get shattered, that strengthened me even more to say no to these men.”

Ali says that she never reached common ground with her father and has little idea of where her mother is, saying only that she is “somewhere in Somalia.”  CONTINUED

H/T TheDailyCaller


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is one brave woman. As are you, Teresa.

Lisa said...

this is an important issue that affects the whole world. Thank you for posting this. I saw Ali in a couple of interviews on TV.

When people are suppressed like that freedom is more important even if you risk your life for it.

Too bad liberals don't address this issue . I guess even behind their ideology they know it's risky.

Altough I havn't seen any more love for the US by Muslims in the last 2 years.

Opus #6 said...

All of this underscores how far the Left's so-called women's movement is simply leftist. To ignore the plight of women in Islam is so far toward incomprehensible I shake my head. Ali is more of a women than all of those females put together.

Kid said...

I've heard her on the radio, and each time she pleads with America to solve this problem.

Who can blame her. I'll bet most people, especially the severely oppressed, look to America to save them as America has saved others.

In the end though, they must revolt themselves. They must solve this problem.

John Carey said...

What a courageous woman. And to think that we're actually debating the concept of Sheria law in this country. Absolutely outrageous. Thanks for the post Teresa.

Most Rev. Gregori said...

Her story should be shouted from the roof tops.

Matt said...

I have only one question...where are the feminazis when you need them?

Always On Watch said...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an atheist.

I think that I understand why -- after what was done to her in the name of religion. Of course, Islam is more a cult than anything else except for a geopolitical ideology.

Her first two books were stunners, especially Infidel. I know of a few women awakened to the dangers of Islam by Ali's writing and interviews.