A woman who we should really pay attention to....

books:


	• Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali Free Press, 2007 - 353 pages average customer review:based on 246 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An eye opener

Very interesting book. Ii gives us an insight into the lives of people in
third world countries and the horror some girls and women have to suffer
because of religious interpretations.
But it also show how perseverence, conviction and courage triumph over
ignorance and fundamentalism.
I highly recommend this book especially to every woman.

Infidel - Great Book

AWESOME - great book. Gives a lot of perspective on matters not openly addressed through media.

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I learned of a whole new world

It was the first half of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's memoir that gave me new insight. So many times I have seen the news about the terrible strife in Africa with one group slaughtering another - and it was inexplicable, completely beyond my understanding. How were these people different from each other? They spoke the same language, were of the same religion yet sometimes they would speak of the `others' as if they were hardly human. At least now I understand what a clan is and how strong the memory of their ancestors is to them. Rarely have I learned so much from one book. I want to thank this remarkable woman for sharing her life with me.
And, of course, her amazing courage is an example to us all.

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A woman who we should really pay attention to....

This book is about the life of Ayaan. It begins in Somalia where Ayaan is born. She is brought up in a Muslim family. Her mother wants to lead a very strict Muslim life, her father is a bit more relaxed but still obeys the Muslim rule.

Her father is a member of a political movement that is working against the president of Somalia, Siad Barre. As a result, the family had to move around a lot to be safe. First Saudi Arabia, where they were exposed to the very strict rules of Islam. Woman were totally covered and could not leave the house without a male family member. After Saudi, they moved to Ethiopia and then on to Kenya. Ayaan tried to live as a devote Muslim but she was disillusioned with the violence, the intolerance and the treatment of women.

When she was in her early 20's, her father arranged a marriage for her with a Muslim who was living in Canada. Ayaan was sent to Germany to await her VISA. While she was there and was exposed to Western culture, she made the quick decision to go to Holland and apply for refugee status and hide from her family. Eventually the family found her but she refused to leave Holland and divorced her husband.

Ayaan went to school in Holland and earned her degree in political science. She becomes politically active in Holland and is elected as a member of Parliament. She becomes an atheist and is very open about Islam and begins to speak and write about it's deception. The overall theme of this book is, there is no line drawn between moderate and extreme Islam. It is all the same. As a result of her openness, she has received many death threats and must live her life hidden from those that have sentenced her to death.

Some interesting and very eye opening quotes in this book about Islam. "Every society that is still in the rigid grip of Islam oppresses women and also lags behind in development. Most of these societies are poor; many are full of conflict and war. Societies that respect the rights of women and their freedom are wealthy and peaceful." ....the Quran is an act of man, not of God. We should be free to interpret it; we should be permitted to apply it to the modern era in a different way, instead of performing painful contortions to try to recreate the circumstances of a horrible distant past." In Saudi Arabia, every breath, every step we took, was infused with concepts of purity or sinning, and with fear. Wishful thinking about the peaceful tolerance of Islam cannot interpret away this reality: hands are still cut off, women still toned and enslaved, just as the Prophet Muhammad decided centuries ago." " Life is better in Europe than it is in the Muslim world because human relations are better, and one reason human relations are better is that in the West, life on earth is valued in the here and now, and individuals enjoy rights and freedoms that are recognized and protected by the state. To accept subordination and abuse because Allah willed it----that, for me, would be self hatred." As a member of Parliament, Ayaan proposed dramatically reducing unemployment benefits and abolishing the minimum wage. "From my experience as a translator with welfare cases, I knew that easy access to generous unemployment benefits leads to a poverty trap: people in Holland often make more money from welfare than they would in actual jobs."

Ayaan is my new hero. Her bravery and openness in her speech about Islam is truly amazing and sets an example. Our society needs to listen carefully to Ayaan and stop being afraid of being viewed as racist as they dare to scrutinize this backward culture.

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