In this profoundly affecting memoir, the internationally renowned political superstar and intrepid activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia to her intellectual awakening in the Netherlands, to her life under armed guard in the West.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of today's most admired and controversial political figures. She burst into international headlines following the 2004 murder by an Islamist of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was left in an Amsterdam street with a letter pinned to his chest that promised that Hirsi Ali, the screenwriter on Van Gogh's film Submission, would be killed next.
Eagerly awaited, Infidel shows the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished — and sometimes reviled — champion of free speech, and gives the absorbing back story to how she developed her beliefs, iron will, and her extraordinary determination to fight injustice done in the name of religion and change the world for the better. Raised in a strict Muslim family and extended clan, Hirsi Ali survived civil war, female circumcision, brutal beatings, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and life in four countries under dictatorships. She escaped from a forced marriage and in 1992 sought asylum in the Netherlands, where she fought for the rights of Muslim women and the reform of Islam, earning her the enmity of reactionary Islamists and craven politicians. Under constant threat, she refuses to be silenced.
Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright, curious, dutiful little girl evolves into a pioneering freedom fighter, a woman who has put her life on the line to work for women's rights and an enlightened Islam and as a result has won numerous humanitarian awards.
