Infidel

Author: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

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“It was Friday, July 24, 1992…. Every year I think of it. I see it as my real birthday: the birth of me as a person…”

This moment occurs on page 188 of 350 pages, and forms the pivot around which this autobiography swings, and the reason why it even exists. Ayaan was born in Somalia to a princely clan. Despite this, her role was defined by Islam and tradition to always be an obedient servant and never to think or act as an independent agent. Worse, being born in Somalia meant that she was subjected to the horrific custom of genital mutilation in order to preserver her “purity”.

She survived this and a life made difficult by poverty, war and the absence of her political activist father. Her father reappeared declaring he had found her a husband, a wealthy Somali who lived in Canada but wanted a properly submissive wife from the homeland. She was sent a ticket, and the event that is her “birthday” was her decision en-route to Canada to flee her destiny and seek refugee status in Holland. She was accepted and discovered an astonishing world utterly different to the way the western world had been described to her by Islamic teachers in her schools. She was astounded to find a land where politicians and officials were not corrupt, where police need not be feared, where services worked and where individuals, while not all kind, often did choose to be welcoming and caring.

The account of her life to this point is dramatic, though perhaps told in a little too much detail. It is filled with stories of family struggles and customs, terrible fights and dangers, war and refugee camps. Her life in Holland perhaps should have been idyllic, but instead she choose to go to university, study Political Science, and eventually entered politics and won a seat in the Dutch Parliament! She spoke out boldly about the repression of women in Islamic cultures, and bought attention to practises such as genital mutilation and honour killing, things that Westerners could hardly believe existed.

This then created a situation where her own life was threatened and an associate with whom she made a compelling short film was actually murdered for his involvement.

This is a book that is deeply fascinating but I can’t see how it can be read without becoming deeply affected. Ayaan is not content to let her story speak for itself, though it speaks volumes. She reflects extensively on the repressive elements in Islam. It seems that in the long run she comes to a personal position where she abandons any religion, but declares that she is not hostile to Islam or Christianity. Rather she argues that immigrants and refugees should ultimately adopt the way of life and values of countries that they seek to live in.

One can read her story and embroiled in the astonishing events that befell her, almost fail to realise what her ultimate position came to be. She actually calls into question the tenants of multiculturalism and some aspects of cultural tolerance. She sees these ideas as being a position that will ultimately diminish the freedoms and functioning of civil society when what is tolerated is something that itself is not tolerant or peaceful. At this point, if the speaker was a wealthy but racially intolerant Westerner, I would probably simply stop bothering to  listen. It is harder to ignore her ideas given her deeply painful personal experiences.

A challenging and significant book in a complex area. Certainly for grown up readers, given the explicit details of genital mutilation and its consequences.

Andrew Lack