Hirsi Ali fled to the Netherlands as a refugee from Somalia in 1992 after declining to submit to a forced marriage to a man she did not know. Ali is still running.She has worked as a cleaning lady, a translator, an activist, a politician and an author.
Hirsi Ali has spoken publicly about the repression of women who have been abused and forced into sexual subjection and compulsory child bearing. She has been critical of Islam and as a consequence has received death threats.
Hirsi Ali’s story is retold and some important questions raised in today’s LA Times article:
Sam Harris and Salman Rushdie, ‘Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Abandoned to Fanatics’, LA Times, 9 October 2007.
Image: Cover of Hirsi Ali’s latest book, Infidel.