Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an extremely polarising figure. She has been hailed as an icon of women's emancipation and derided as a self-hating Islamophobe. AyAyaan Hirsi Ali is an extremely polarising figure. She has been hailed as an icon of women's emancipation and derided as a self-hating Islamophobe. Ayaan is an outright critic of Islam: not its manifestations across the world, but the religious philosophy itself. According to her, Islam is a medieval religion built on violence and misogyny and has no place in the modern world, and it is high time Muslims accepted it.
This book is her autobiography from her birth to the point of time when she had to relocate from the Netherlands to the US following the hullabaloo her film,Submission,created - and judging by her life experiences, it is small wonder that she turned against the religion she grew up in. Growing up in Somalia as the daughter of a largely absent father and an abusive mother who took her frustration out on her children, and brought up under strict Somali tribal rules and restrictions by a matriarchal grandmother, Ayaan's childhood was a prison only those from the third world will know - the same kind of prison faced by many women even today under patriarchal societies.
Ayaan's mother had divorced her first husband, in Kuwait, and had moved back to Somalia where she met Ayaan's father Hirsi Magan. Very soon after their third child, Haweya, was born, Magan was jailed for going against the communist dictator of Somalia, Siad Barre - and the family entered a sort of twilight existence. Shunted from country to country - Somalia to Saudi Arabia to Kenya - all the while living in fear, instilled by their grandmother's fearsome admonitions and their mother's disciplining which bordered on child abuse, the nightmare that childhood was to the girls could only be imagined. This was compounded by the bloody and painful genital mutilation that the girls were forced to undergo.
According to the religion followed by Ayaan's family, the world was a sinful place. Our existence here was only the threshold to the abode of Allah. Two angels were at our two shoulders, recording sins and good deeds - if the sins outweighed the other, the person was sent to Hell, a fearsome place of everlasting fire, to be roasted for eternity. So the only hope was to live by Allah's diktat as set forth in the Quran, even if it made life miserable - a glorious life in the hereafter awaited.
Initially a pious follower, Ayaan began to question the tenets of her faith as she grew up and became more independent (especially as she saw the Muslim Brotherhood radicalising more and more of the youth) and she was punished for it at every stage. Still, she tried to be a dutiful Muslim and a daughter until the straw that broke the camel's back arrived in the form of an arranged marriage. Her beloved father married her off to a total stranger located in Canada. Her objections fell on deaf ears. She was not even present during her own wedding, as per orthodox Islamic customs! En route to Canada, she escaped to Holland and claimed refugee status there, lying about her name and status (something which would come back to haunt her).
Doggedly pursuing an academic career despite many setbacks, Ayaan got into the Leiden University to study political science. In the meantime, there were many entreaties by her family and husband for her to return which were stubbornly resisted. Working as a Somali to Dutch translator part-time, she became aware of the plight of so many women in Holland, who had migrated from Islamic countries, but who still lived under the iron thumb of their husbands. After the twin towers of the World Trade Center was brought down by Osama Bin Laden, Ayaan became a severe critic of Islam, and ultimately, an atheist. Seeing a video by Osama bin Laden, she became convinced that global terror emanated from the teachings of Islam itself. Ayaan joined the Centrist-Right Liberal party and became a member of the Dutch parliament.
Fed up with the liberal tolerance of Islam as a religion, Ayaan started speaking out openly against it. According to her, the religion itself, and the Quran, which it is based on, are the real problems - not its interpretation as claimed by many. In 2004, in collaboration with Theo Van Gogh, she made a provocative short film,Submission,squarely placing the Muslim religion in the dock for violence against women. Understandably, anger flared up among conservative Muslims and the security which protected her around the clock was beefed up. She became a virtual prisoner. But Van Gogh, who had no such privileges, was murdered in broad daylight.
As the Dutch government shuttled her around from place to place in the US, vigorous debates about Ayaan started up in a Holland which had become divided on religious lines as never before. Her citizenship was briefly revoked (based on the fact that she had lied during the time of applying for refugee status)but then reinstated - but by that time, Ayaan had decided that she had had enough. She relocated to the US, and joined the Right Wing think tank American Enterprise Institute. She remains there to this day, as vocal a critic of Islam as ever.
***
As an autobiography, this book is a compelling read. I have read many similar tales from Africa, a continent which has been ravished and then left to die by the erstwhile colonial powers - a continent which is being bled dry even now by capitalists and their cronies in government. Ayaan was doubly unfortunate in belonging to one of the most volatile countries and to one of the most regressive societies, and I salute her courage and perseverance in managing to come out of it. I don't judge her based on the subtle falsehoods and stratagems she was forced to employ from time to time.
I have no illusions about Islam (or any religion for that matter). Ayaan's progression from a devout believer to an atheist, I could appreciate since I had travelled that route myself. I also agree that to exonerate religionin totofor atrocities committed in its name may be politically correct, but morally untenable. In the modern world, religion has to be put in the dock for its misdeeds.
But I find Ayaan's blanket condemnation of Islam as the source of violence a bit problematic. It is true that one has to go deep into its teachings and call out every instance of injustice, bigotry, violence and misogyny. Writers and artists being targeted for doing so is perfectly unacceptable - we do need more of Theo Van Goghs and Charlie Hebdos. However, by latching on to one religion as the source of all that's vile and the "enlightened" West as a panacea to all ills, Ayaan is selling a simplistic solution which will be gleefully lapped up by conservatives who are continuously peddling the "clash of civilisations" narrative.
If we look at history, the countries ravaged by despotism and conservative religion have all been under centuries of colonial rule,who actively encouraged the local rulers in keeping the people penurious and illiterate.Colonialism was a looting machine, which funded the prosperous West that Ayaan so much admires. Even today, the economic superpowers take great pains to keep their crony despots happy, while intervening in countries which refuse to toe their line. This is called "making the world safe for democracy".
So, to reduce global terrorism to just the teachings of the Quran is dangerous simplification, in my opinion. I agree one hundred percent that there should be reform movements to cleanse all religions of inhuman practices, however "holy" their adherents consider them to be. This has to be done through dialogue, and severe criticism is also required - violence in the name of hurt religious sentiments is never acceptable. But labelling a religion as regressive in totality - especially when all religions come in many flavours - is likely to be counterproductive....more
Nandakishore
>
Books:
female-voices
(16)
Loading...
