Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Infidel
Book Review: A Passionate Cry for Free Speech and Women's Equality
Summary: 5 Stars
Many memoirs are published every year by people who are famous and powerful and who can drop many names of other famous and powerful people; these books often wind up on the remainder bin of history.
This memoir is different. It is written with passion and clarity by a relatively young woman who began life far from the centers of power in the industrialized world. The events of her life touch on the defining moments and thorny issues of our time: refugees and their burgeoning numbers, radical Islam:its roots and attractions for young people, 9/11 emotions and aftermath and the continuing temptation for the West to lose the struggle it now faces by engaging in self-censorship.
Ayann Hirsi Ali writes of growing up caught between the tribal traditions of her family and the urban environments in her family found itself. She tells of fervently embracing radical Islam and then being torn by doubt. Her journey to spiritual awareness starts with the stories she finds in Western romance novels: the mere notion of a woman choosing who to marry is revolutionary in her milieu. Fleeing an arranged marriage, she becomes a refugee in Holland. Her drive to become independent and earn her own living leads to work as a translator--which brings her into contact with stories of other refugees. She becomes politically aware.
She wants to study political science; she enters Dutch politics and is elected to parliament. With Theo van Gogh, she makes a short film protesting the traditional subjugation of women in Muslim countries. Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim extremist and Ayaan is forced into hiding. Political events and compromises mean that a close colleague of Aayan's decides to revoke her Dutch citizenship so Ayaan Hirsi Ali now starts over in America.
She brings with her a trumpet call and a reminder that no struggle can be won by being less than what we are at our best. This is riveting reading. It sets events in Somalia, in Saudi Arabia, in Africa right on our doorstep in the form of a passionate and compelling narrative. By learning how this struggle played out in the mind of one young African woman, one understands the larger issues with more clarity. The most potent moral I take away from her work is that the individual liberties that are the basis of American thought still resonate. They are what make us the target of extremists and they are also our most potent weapon against them.
Book Review: A Powerful Book That is Relevant To Our Troubled Times
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a memoir about Ayaan Hirsi Ali's struggles with growing up in a strict Muslim home, and her gradual understanding of how her religion was abusive to the happiness and freedoms of women. Born in Somali, and eventually becoming a member of the Dutch parliament before moving to the United States, she tells a brutal and straight forward story of what it was like living as a girl and later a woman under the strict rules of the Muslim Religion. Despite death threats, she has not shied away from attacking the religion that she once believed so strongly in. This book is a powerful exposure of what the lives of women are like in a very restrictive and controlling religion, that places women in a subservient role. This extraordinary story has really made me stop and think, and re-evaluate my own current attitudes about Islam. Many Muslim women, even in so called free thinking countries, such as Holland, are still living under strict Islamic laws that not only allows, but even encourages men to beat their wives, order genital mutilation of their daughters, and sometimes to even kill these women. This book is so relevant to what is going on in the world today. It helped me to better understand why we are so hated, to see that the roots of this hate are based in the original doctrines of the Muslim Religion, to understand that women who choose to wear the vail are not necessarily doing it because this makes them happy, but because that the culture tells them that this is the way to be pure, and the way to eternal reward after death. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in women's rights, and the basic beliefs of people who literally follow the teachings of the Muslim Religion. I believe in tolerance for religious freedoms, but I found this book very disturbing, and it has caused me to rethink some of my previous attitudes. Free countries must guard against believing so strongly in religious tolerance that the cost of basic human rights is compromised.Book Review: A Powerful Tale
Summary: 5 Stars
A lot of reviewers seem to be reviewing the author or her politics, rather than this book.
With minimal attention to the validity of Hirsi Ali's politics, or her character, Infidel is an excellent autobiography for a number of reasons:
Infidel is extremely readable. The pace is balanced between dramatic page-turning moments and slower more pensive sections. The scale is very human throughout, as well as very personal, even when discussing issues of Dutch national politics. From the first page, it's about Hirsi Ali's sense of identity, and her lifelong struggle with that sense. This is why it remains a good autobio, and a bad 'manifesto' or political treatise.
Hirsi Ali's tone throughout is fairly humble. It's easy to tell that she is extremely stubborn, outspoken, and arrogant... and most of her stories do reflect well on her, or highlight her victimization. But at the same time, she owns up to actions of which she now disapproves, and does include stories that reflect poorly on her. The result is that I 'liked' her the whole time, which is a good quality in an autobiography.
In a way that's unusual for an autobio, Infidel builds up on itself. Stories that seem tangential are shown to have pertinence later, without a disruption to the narrative or an explicit connect-the-dots. The result is that I feel that I understand the decades-long experience that have made Hirsi Ali who she is, and what she stands for. Regardless of whether or not I like her politics or agree with her, having read Infidel, I can understand *why* she is where she is.
Finally, it's a compelling read because the story is bigger than one woman. Although she keeps the focus on her own experience, a large part of her personal motivation came from seeing that her own level of physical and mental abuse was not unique in her community. This expands the autobio to be reflective of a larger group - not all muslim women, but a sizable number of them. As is clearly Hirsi Ali's intent, this provokes a lot of thought and discussion amongst readers. Whether this makes for a 'better' autobio or a 'worse' one is debatable, but it is certainly a more powerful/impactful/weighty book as a result.
An excellent read!
Book Review: A Refresher Course on Liberty
Summary: 5 Stars
The best kind of autobiography: the kind that gives you perspective on ways of life that you never knew existed, let alone knew how much of an impact they could have on you. Hirsi Ali is a liberal pragmatist, with a truer understanding of liberty than almost every other politician I've heard say two words together.
It's unfortunate to think that Hirsi Ali's atheism may dissuade people from touching this book, especially since the kind of people who would actually be dissuaded by her personal beliefs on God are more than likely those with the most desperate need for a refresher course on the ideal of liberty.
For those with such reservations, I would recommend at least reading up to the point at which she enters The Netherlands, as the preceding pages will at least offer some startling and unforgettable insights into Islam, east African culture, political Islamisation, the civil wars of the region and their practical impact on its citizens, religious fundamentalism, and the treatment of women.
These in themselves are more than enough to make this book a more than worthwhile read, especially for those whose sole purpose in picking up a book is to gain additional context for the world around them.
Book Review: A Soul Yearning To Be Free
Summary: 5 Stars
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's 'Infidel' evokes comparison with 'The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man', each an eloquent and painful story of a soul yearning to be free, striving to overcome the crushing oppression of totalitarian religion. Hirsi Ali was born into the clan-based culture of 1969 Somalia, a culture that values family and clan honor above all else, in which a daughter is esteemed for her submission to her father, as is a wife to her husband. The theme of submission runs deep in this book. (The word 'Islam' means 'submission'). The ideal woman is one who negates herself for the benefit of others, who passively accepts life inside the 'mental cage' as Hirsi Ali calls it. The brutal and traumatic violence that enforces this culture is described graphically: battered wives, young girls 'sewn shut', rape, 'honor' killings of unmarried women who become pregnant. And, as Hirsi Ali, points out, the tragedy is not limited to the female half of the population: women living in fear of violence in this life as well as of Islam's Hell in the next raise stunted children. But Hirsi Ali was able to survive and eventually flourish in the Netherlands. She gained Dutch citizenship and took up the cause of the rights of Muslim women as a member of parliament. But speaking the truth has cost her dearly: estrangement from her family, and the murder of her friend and collaborator Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker with whom she made a film about women and Islam. Her book, though, isn't angry. She simply wants others in the Muslim world to search for the truth, recognize it when they find it, and then speak it without fear.