I actually ended up listening to the audio version (read by the author) and loaning the book to a friend. This is an incredible story told by the incredible lady who lived it. If you want to learn more about the plight of women in the world and what many do to survive then this is the book for you. Very well written - definitely on my "recommend to others" list.

Another good read, that every individual should read, if they want to know how a woman is treated in the Moslem religion.

the book came way faster than I expected it to. it came in great condition and I am looking forward to be able to read it.

Thanks!

Reading this book was like embarking on a quest that transcends time, traditions, cultures, freedoms, & beliefs, while following the growth of a truly amazing woman. The writing is incredible, I could not put the book down from the first line to the last. The stories are unimaginable to someone who has grown up in the West, being nurtured by family & society to work to one's full potential, stressing openness, freedom, & communication. This book clears up a lot of questions that have been brooding in my mind about Islamic societies, and how they can possibly function, when ½ of the population is oppressed in every way. It was fascinating to understand just how deeply embedded religion is in everyday life and the "submission" aspect of one's relationship with Allah, which I was not aware of before.

Ayaan, you are one brave woman and a warrior, I thank you for the contributions you have made to societies across the world by exposing the abuse of women in Islam. You have made this planet a better place for many women, even if they do not understand this fact. Hopefully, their daughters will. I know that they will. I'm sorry that this has come at great personal sacrifice to you, but know that your compromised freedom has given the possibility of freedom to millions around the globe.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book, Infidel, explores enduring tension between reason and religion, between submission and freedom, between expression of the individual and clan loyalty. It opens the closed doors of Islam and gives the reader permission to enter a world far removed from most Westerners' experience of reality. Hirsi Ali allows the reader, not a voyeuristic glimpse, but a thorough introduction to and illuminating journey through the world of Islam, as well as a fascinating account of her own self-liberation and integration into the West.

Excellent book, very informative about the different cultures and religions mentioned in the writings. Presents a very graphic picture about the strength of women! Well written, and captivating subject matter.

This was one of the books selected from my book club. The first 100 pages were a struggle for me to keep reading, just didn't hold my interest. Then after about 150 I was hooked! For us in America, just getting past all of the names! She warns you in the beginning that names are important to her. Once I realized I would not need all of the names and started just listening to the story it was an amazing story. I must confess I was among those who are clueless! Be sure to watch the video on U-tube, and the interviews with her. She is a truly amazing lady!

What a fantastic woman. Incredible story. Open your mind to the world outside.

Hirsi Ali is a survivor. She details her painful experiences as a Muslim female throughout her life vividly and candidly and deserves credit for that alone. She escapes an arranged marriage and winds up seeking political asylum in Holland, where she eventually gets elected to serve in Parliament
As she learns to appreciate her freedom, she begins questioning what she was taught about her religion: women are possessions, the problems Muslims face are created by the West and Jews, honor killings are acceptable etc.
She eventually leaves her religion behind, drawing attention to what she learned and experienced as evidence that her teachings were severely flawed. How can the West, where there is so much freedom, and life is so much better than in Muslim countries, be the cause of their problems? Why shouldn't women have an equal say in their choices? Why should women have to hide their bodies lest men have uncontrollable sexual attractions to them, and men not have to hide their bodies, as if women had no concept of sexual attraction? Why could women walk down the streets in Holland with their legs, arms, necks showing, and not get raped every second? If a woman gets raped, why is it her fault?
Hirsi Ali rejected the notions that the West had any part of the plight of Muslims, and for her bravery, received many threats to her life. Indeed the director Theo Van Gogh was murdered because of his involvement in a documentary he made in conjunction with her.
Hirsi Ali repudiated what she was taught about the West multiple times, but never said anything about how what she was taught about Jews was incorrect. As late as 9/11 (2001), she mentioned that she could have understood what happened on 9/11 (please note, I'm not saying she condoned what happened), had the hijackers been Palestinian, and left notes saying that the terrorist acts were against the US because of its support for Israel. Yet she never addressed what she said about Jews in terms of any enlightened experiences or knowledge. She did speak about the embarrassment Holland felt for its complicity with Hitler, which would have been a perfect time to mention her feelings, yet they weren't addressed.
Hirsi Ali went to great lengths to show how and why she rejected her early teachings. Every single objection was gone over repeatedly. Yet she never addressed the claims about how Jews were responsible for Muslim problems.
I wrote to her at the American Enterprise Institute where she works, about my concern asking for her to address that, and received a letter from an associate telling me that Hirsi Ali reads all her email, but doesn't have the time to answer everyone. Fine. But it would have made sense to be directed to some writing where this issue was addressed. Apparently, there aren't any.
I was torn between giving this book five stars or one. I decided to split the difference, and encourage the writer to explore her feelings and write about what Muslims say about Jews.

In her book "Infidel," Ayaan Hirsi Ali acknowledges several people who made it possible for her to survive the Islamic tribalism she grew up under in Africa, to escape to Holland after her father arranged for her to marry a man she didn't love and to prosper thereafter. But if I were to cite one overriding factor that saved her, it would be the Western novels she read.

Throughout "Infidel," Ali brings up these books again and again, particularly in regard to love, sex and marriage. To understand their impact, it's important to recognize the mind-numbing, repressive culture she had to endure. Ali was born in Somalia to religious, clannish Muslim parents, and her mother taught her to memorize old chants of war and death, raids, and camel herding, and female Somali poetry that never mentioned love, which is, she writes, "considered synonymous with desire, and sexual desire is seen as low -- literally unspeakable."

Fortunately, Ali and her family moved to non-Muslim Kenya, where she attended a British colonial-based school and learned English. There she read "1984," "Huckleberry Finn," "Wuthering Heights" and tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen.

"Later on there were sexy books: Valley of the Dolls, Barbara Cartland, Danielle Steele," she writes. "All these books, even the trashy ones, carried with them ideas -- races were equal, women were equal to men -- and concepts of freedom, struggle, and adventure that were new to me."

Here are some other excerpts:

"[T]he spark of will inside me grew even as I studied and practiced to submit. It was fanned by the free-spirited novels ... Most of all, I think it was the novels that saved me from submission. I was young, but the first tiny, meek beginnings of my rebellion had already clicked into place."

"I always found it uncomfortable to be opposed to the West. For me, Britain and America were the countries in my books where there was decency and individual choice."

"I knew that another kind of life was possible. I had read about it ... [T]he kind of life I had always wanted, with a real education, a real job, a real marriage ... I wanted to become a person, an individual, with a life of my own."

"Infidel" is a great study for someone who would like to (further) concretize the crucial, life-sustaining role that art plays in man's life.


~ Joseph Kellard
Theainet1@optonline.net

This is one of the most thought provoking books I have ever read. Ayaan Hirsi Ali gives a detailed portrayal of her life story and growing up Muslim. All that she writes about will stay with you and will make you think.
Her amazing life journey had me taken through several countries and through a culture as a woman I could have never in my wildest dreams knew existed. I had heard about female genital mutilation, but I never truly knew of the real horrors of it. I could also never imagine a mother telling her child to hit before you are hit as a survival of the fittest strategy. Alot of things she writes about are not what we in the westernize world are taught, and it seems very foreign to the point of culture shock.
Please pick up the book and read it with an open mind. I can definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about the struggles of women around the world.

One of the few life-changing books that I would consider a must-read for all: honest, direct, and with inspiring moral clarity.

Ayan Hirsi Ali's account of growing up as a Somali woman in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Germany, and the Netherlands, what she endured, her search for religious meaning as a Muslim and her struggle to be her own person was inspiring and a must read for all!!!!!!

This is one of the most thought provoking books I have ever read. Ayaan Hirsi Ali gives a detailed portrayal of her life story and growing up Muslim. All that she writes about will stay with you and will make you think.
Her amazing life journey had me taken through several countries and through a culture as a woman I could have never in my wildest dreams knew existed. I had heard about female genital mutilation, but I never truly knew of the real horrors of it. I could also never imagine a mother telling her child to hit before you are hit as a survival of the fittest strategy. Alot of things she writes about are not what we in the westernize world are taught, and it seems very foreign to the point of culture shock.
Please pick up the book and read it with an open mind. I can definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about the struggles of women around the world.

One of the few life-changing books that I would consider a must-read for all: honest, direct, and with inspiring moral clarity.

Ayan Hirsi Ali's account of growing up as a Somali woman in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Germany, and the Netherlands, what she endured, her search for religious meaning as a Muslim and her struggle to be her own person was inspiring and a must read for all!!!!!!

I am a Christian woman who feels strongly about the rights of women. In Ali's book I saw corollaries between the abuse of women in Islam and the abuse of women in Christiandom. I also saw corollaries between the way culture intertwines itself in the interpretation of the Koran and of the Bible.

Being an American, I had no idea what was going on in Europe in the Muslim communities. I also didn't know hardly anything about what it was like to grow up in the countries Ali did. This book taught me hard realities I was not aware of.

I think this is a great book and encourage everyone to read it. And remember, Islam is not the only religion that uses it's sacred texts to abuse women, there are Christians who do that also.

This book opened my eyes to the truth of the world we all live in now - a world that is smaller than we think and much more evil and more perilous. It is the only book I have ever read that truly explains the reason for the 9/11 attack in a way that makes sense and is believable. It opens our vision to the future and to what we can know it will be. I feel that I not only will never think in the same way, I will never be the same. At the same time it portrays amazing courage and is absolutely inspiring, especially so to all young women everywhere.

I am a Christian woman who feels strongly about the rights of women. In Ali's book I saw corollaries between the abuse of women in Islam and the abuse of women in Christiandom. I also saw corollaries between the way culture intertwines itself in the interpretation of the Koran and of the Bible.

Being an American, I had no idea what was going on in Europe in the Muslim communities. I also didn't know hardly anything about what it was like to grow up in the countries Ali did. This book taught me hard realities I was not aware of.

I think this is a great book and encourage everyone to read it. And remember, Islam is not the only religion that uses it's sacred texts to abuse women, there are Christians who do that also.

This book opened my eyes to the truth of the world we all live in now - a world that is smaller than we think and much more evil and more perilous. It is the only book I have ever read that truly explains the reason for the 9/11 attack in a way that makes sense and is believable. It opens our vision to the future and to what we can know it will be. I feel that I not only will never think in the same way, I will never be the same. At the same time it portrays amazing courage and is absolutely inspiring, especially so to all young women everywhere.

I know the purpose of a review is to comment on the book, rather than other reviewers. However, I must say that giving one star to this book because other women have gone through "worse" or that the reviewer doesn't agree with Ali's personal feelings is, to me, utterly ridiculous. This is her story and her coming of age. Do we minimize her amazing story because her repeated beatings weren't as "bad" as other women? Do we ignore her story because we don't agree with her? No. This is her story, her life, and her journey. She's not telling you to agree with her. I myself wonder at her ability to survive it all. Her intellectual and emotional feelings about Islam, again, are HER feelings. I'm certainly not an expert on Islam, but I feel it is condescending and patronizing to state that she confuses religion with culture. She's lived with and in Islam all her life: doesn't that make her rather an expert on the subject? You may not agree with the path she has taken, but please don't minimize her understanding of Islam or her journey. Let's use her story and her life as a first step towards discussion and understanding.

Succinctly put, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one courageous lady. She overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to escape the persecution of islam in her native Somalia and become a free woman, a Dutch citizen, and a member of the Dutch Parliament.

For people who have been lulled into thinking that islam is a religion of peace, some serious rethinking is in order. Granted, as practiced, islam varies somewhat from country to country--some being worse than others--but the ignorance, warfare, barbarism, horrible treatment of women, hatred of everything and everyone un-moslem, and blame-everyone-else attitude all seem to be prevalent everywhere in the islamic world. Ayaan vividly tells of this--not from research but from her own life experiences.

If you want to read an amazing story of literal slavery to liberty, you must read this book. Once you get within the first few pages, if you are anything like me, you will have a difficult time putting it down until you have finished.

amazing story, amazing book, amazing woman. I am highly impressed with Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her book. The book was a page turner and Ali is a gifted writer. She is a strong voice for women everywhere.

If one text has succeeded in challenging the complacency of the West, indeed of supposedly enlightened people the world over, to the rising threat of fundamentalist Islam, it is Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. From her perspective as a woman who has survived the treacherous grip of Islam over both her body and her mind, Ayaan counters the oft repeated proclamation that Islam is "a religion of peace." Narrating her own intimidating journey through oppression and hatred in Islamic Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and the rapidly growing Muslim enclaves of Kenya and Europe, Ali rehashes in masterful and often touching prose her harrowing trials and the series of cruel acts perpetrated against her in the name of the religion she herself so desperately clung to.

Young Ayaan survives her mother's descent into insanity, her abusive male relatives, female circumcision, and constant religious and tribal warfare by dreaming of the life she can only read about in Western novels. She is finally forced to choose between her dreams and the harsh reality of life as a subservient Muslim woman when her father promises her hand in marriage to an aging Somali expatriate who has come to seek a proper traditional wife in Kenya. Her choice is flight, but reaching her imagined paradise in liberal Western Europe she discovers that Islam has arrived ahead of her, bringing with it so much of the terror she had naively hoped to have left behind. After a soul wrenching self-examination, Ayaan cuts the final cords to the religion and culture of her birth, to become a one woman crusade against the oppression perpetrated by Islam, and innocently defended by the "accepting" European Left.

For anyone who is left unsatisfied by the all-encompassing doctrine of cultural relativism, Ali is a breath of fresh literary air. When we unquestioningly "accept" Muslim culture, are we also accepting the horrific abuse of Muslim wives and daughters? What of religious and ethnic minorities suffering throughout the Muslim dominated Arab world and East Africa? Ayaan convincingly argues that in our zeal to be inoffensive, we have allowed for a level of intolerance and violent hatred that would not be tolerated in any other religion. It is time, Ali is telling us, to force an enlightenment in the Muslim world, to bring it up to the same standards by which we judge the Christian West.

Quill says: Infidel is a must read!

This is a gripping book with a fascinating autobiographical story, as well as a focused analysis of what Muslim communities in the West today are like. Ali has the experience, as a formerly observant Muslim and (brief) member of the Muslim Brotherhood, to provide insights and to make an excellent case for every point.
It's must reading for all politicians, as well as all Americans.

This could be the most memorable book I've read all year.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali has become one of my heroines. Her improbable but triumphant story can inspire women everywhere who are trapped by cultural restrictions, lack of educational and vocational opportunities, family poverty, or fear of taking the risk of following their hearts. The horrible treatment of women in certain parts of the "modern" world is not widely understood in the West. Ali's stories of abuse and her perilous struggle to find freedom should be heard and understood by young Americans. They will find it amazing that patently horrible treatment of young women like themselves can be considered "normal!" It is amazing that Ali has to risk her life daily just because she chose her own life path and published the truth about her journey. Her courage is inspiring.

I first learned about the author on a news program. Her message, though forced into sound bites, was riveting. After ordering and reading "Infidel" I sent additional copies to my liberally educated daughters. I am only sorry that the book does not include the rest of her life, but we must wait for her to live it! Ali's book has many messages, but it never says "this is the message," because it is embedded in her story. The glimpses into her childhood years look so strange to our eyes, like a look into a medieval time. Her maltreatment, much of it at the hands of those who should have been nurturing and encouraging her, is truly tragic. Her escape from the self-serving control of her proud father and would-be husband is both suspenseful and triumphant. While Ali's initial acceptance by her European hosts is laudatory, their inability to perceive the threat to their own generous and accepting culture by uncontrolled immigration of people with totally different values is troubling. An autobiography contains inarguable truth - it is simply an account of what happened. Ali does not attempt to boast or preach. Her journey was made a step at a time without any clear idea of where it would lead. She only did what was necessary to survive with her integrity and identity intact. Coming from a culture where she was not considered a person of free will and value, she had the fortitude to risk everything to live a life of her choosing and not to compromise or give in to intolerable pressure to conform and be controlled. May we all have such strength of character!

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

i have heard of worse stories happening in the west to non muslim women.
what people must understand is there is a difference between culture and religion. look back to when islam was introduced and what was happening to women and girls. islam gave women rights that were strictly for men at that time. female circumcision is not allowed, forced marriages are not allowed, beating women and even forcing women to cover is NOT allowed. one must chose islam as a religion by choice NOT force. please think twice before associating islam with cultural traditions that are so backwards.

No doubt about it--Ayan Ali has an incredible story...so much in one life, is unbelievable. Unfortunately, her story telling is at times un-artful..."this happened, then this happened, then this happened..." More troubling, however, is the omission of the details of the company her single-issue politics has prompted her to keep.

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.

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.

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.

Some authors invite you to take a journey with them. But in "Infidel" Ayaan grabbed my hand firmly and pulled me down her path, sometimes with my heels dug in for fear of what the next turn would reveal. But I could not put the book down. This is a fearless revelation into the very heart of the Islamic world and an honest working through of her faith and feelings. It constantly amazed me that she could recall and relive this horrible existence without hate or resentment. The writing style is extraordinarily good and draws you in from the first paragraph.

Another incredible thing was how she takes the reader into her mind while she was watching CNN and American news coverage during and after the 9/11 crisis. Westerners were trying to convince themselves that these terrorists were isolated extremists. Ayaan tells the reader otherwise, that most Muslim mothers would have rejoiced to have had their son involved in this "holy" and justified act. It is a rare glimpse of politically incorrect honesty.

I felt as if I had fallen into the book. I became, along with her, a conformist and a rebel, an obedient woman and a disobedient daughter, a refugee and a rescuer. I would finally feel safe only to discover that all around me there were those seeking to kill me for revelations of life behind the veil of Islam.

In the end I ached for her. Her emptiness now that she has rejected Allah is palpable. But her strength and character and loving honesty is a testament to the amazing woman she has always been inside.

I literally could not put this book down and read for hours and hours last weekend. Upon reaching the final page I felt that it seemed more like a beginning than an end. A story of brutality and repression that is beautifully inspiring, this book deserves a read.

The last few weeks, I have been enjoying my commute in the company of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, as I've listened to her fascinating book Infidel. I love books that transport me to a foreign place or time, and immerse me in a culture that I didn't know about before. And I love books that provoke thought about important ideas. Infidel does both of things exceedingly well. It is the autobiographical account of an independent-minded woman who was raised in a traditional Somali Muslim family and grew up to be a Member of Dutch Parliament advocating for women's rights. The first half of the book is a vivid account of her childhood in Somalia, and later in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Kenya as her family escaped the turbulence of their war-torn homeland. Her description of life in places like Mogadishu, Mecca, and Nairobi is rich in detail about their houses and neighborhoods, their food, their culture and traditions. Her portraits of her parents, her siblings, her grandmother, and other family members are richly complex, infused with the emotional perspective of her childhood at the same time balanced by an unflinching retrospective assessment of their good qualities and their weaknesses. The genealogist in me was fascinated learning about the Somali tribal culture that puts such a premium on one's ancestry that children at an early age can recite their ancestry for nine generations, and when two Somalis meet, they can readily ascertain their kinship even to tenth cousins. And her description of the variations of Muslim practice between countries, and the rise of Muslim fundamentalism, was illuminating and especially relevant today. She does a remarkable job of making comprehensible such alien traditions as polygamy, arranged marriages, and female genital mutilation. What is especially remarkable is how, even though she would later come to condemn some parts of the traditions she was raised with as being completely barbaric, she describes them in the context of her early life subjectively and dispassionately, neither concealing the barbarity nor revealing anger, judgment, and condemnation. The account is all the more powerful for that, allowing the reader to understand how such barbarity could be accepted and tolerated because of how it is embedded in traditional ways of life and in how sons and daughters are raised. And it allows us to understand this amazing woman on all the parts of her journey, from childhood, to adolescence when she was drawn to fundamentalism, to adulthood when she escaped to discover liberal ideas. The latter half of the book describes her life in the Netherlands, where she becomes not only a parliamentarian but a political lightning rod after making a controversial film with Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh which lead to his murder and death threats for her. The book then becomes more about politics, ideology, and her intellectual autobiography, though embedded in personal experiences of immigration, learning Dutch culture, and ultimately life as a figure in hiding from death threats. She raises significant questions about whether a liberal society can survive being tolerant of a growing immigrant community within its midst that remains insular and perpetuates an illiberal way of life. (These questions have reverberations here in America, not only regarding Islamism, but in issues like the recent Texas FLDS raids, and in the fault lines of conflict between religious liberty and civil rights protections -- issues I hope to explore in future blog posts.) And she makes a compelling argument that Islam needs to undergo its own Reformation if it is to be reconciled to modernity. Her ideas and the amazing life experience that formed them make for vital and fascinating reading.

What a thoughtful and inspiring book this was! Ms. Ali writes in a very engaging and direct style that makes for a hard-to-put-down biography/self-discovery book. After finishing this great book, one can only admire this woman for her courage to think for herself, change her whole way of life, and watch as her family disowned and alienated her. She was able to see Islam for what it is--a disastrously out-of-touch system set in place to suppress women, full of ridiculous mythology. Ms. Ali rightfullly shows that Islam countries are far behind Western countries in economic well being, human rights, and learning.

One, I think, must also consider X-ianity during the reading of Infidel. Could there be verses telling women to be quiet in the X-tian Quran? Could there be verses in the X-tian "holy" book where god commands men to r@pe women? Could x-tianity be a silly bunch of myths, hundreds of years old (just like Islam!), that shackle its adherents from growing intellectually and morally?

Infidel is a fantastic book by a true, modern-day hero. I'm so glad I read Ms. Ali's memoir, and I can't wait to see what she'll say next. Highly recommended!

Until it was finished, this book became a part of me--- I could not put it down. Ayaan's culture was an incomprehensible combination of love, support, backwardness, cruelty, and control. To watch her grow and develop into an independent and autonomous young lady, was to see a flower beginning to bloom. It made me thankful for having been born in the USA and for the parents I had.

Submission and degradation of women in the Muslim faith is certainly not a new or unrevealed topic, but this personal account by Hirsi Ali brings insight and understanding that one can not achieve through news articles and other written factual documentation. I applaud Ms. Ali for her courage to come forth and expose the errors of her former religion (which is no easy task) with the hope that the atrocities against Muslim women will eventually come to an end. Women of all faiths and nationalities should read this book and more like it to remind us that we still have a long way to go to accomplish true equality with men.

An incredible story by a gifted writer. One of the best books I have read in many years.

This book relates the heroic story of a young woman and her struggle to
live out her life in freedom. It starts with her terror at 5 yrs. old being held down and circumcised along with her sister and brother. This episode will haunt her the rest of her life. She then struggles to get an education and stands up for what she believes women are entitled to--freedom to pick the man they want to marry and freedom to choose a career in life. Her harrowing flight to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man is vividly detailed as she struggles to reach Holland and her asylum. Her life is threatened but she holds firm to her beliefs. She also reveals the Koran and its teachings that make women second class citizens. A fascinating and fast moving book about her life and struggles in the Moslem culture and her religious journey that eventually makes her an atheist.

[..]. This book is a real eye opener. I reveals much about the cultures and lives of people living in the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa such as Somalia, and the Netherlands. I really enjoyed reading this book as it was a great eye opener.

One of the most honest books I have ever read! Sometimes its very hard to read and stomach, but there is so much knowledge in the story. A story about religion, love, hate, struggle, success, and everything in between. Definately in my top ten favorite books of all time. Read it! It will make you look inside the box, and see whats really going on!

I was profoundly moved by this personal account of a life from childhood to civil war to living in a far off and strange land. The pros are simple and direct and while the events are dramatic there is no sense of melodrama in this story of personal triumph over unimaginable odds. Tribalism, religious extremism, subjugation of women, and brutality. I would recommend this book to anyone in search of a better understanding of Islam and life in Africa with emphasis on Somalia and Kenya.
Above all, this is a work of courage.

This is an excellent, well written and touching book. It opened up my eyes to the plight of Islamic women. If you think that slavery died with Abraham Lincoln, think again. Millions of women around the globe are subjugated and enslaved today. The biggest problem is that they may not even realize their predicament and so it is hard to change their thinking. Read the book!! Become informed and then speak up if you care or if you dare!!

What's to say? As fine a memoir as I've ever read. Ayaan is born in Somalia, one step removed from a life as a desert nomad. She quickly moves from being a diehard fundamentalist in Kenya & Saudi Arabia, to an Islamic apostate fleeing to the West, to a Dutch MP, to an international refugee in fear of her life. And she faces each challenge with a courage I can only envy. The wrtiting is clear and taut and as exciting as the best beach thriller. She is an inspiration.

I just finished reading Infidel, and I am inspired. This is a book that chronicles the intellectual development and moral honesty of one person who has had the power to influence an entire country...and possibly world.

For anyone who questions whether one person can make a difference in this world, Ali's answer is the story of her meteoric rise from destitute, half-educated lone immigrant to a country where she did not speak the language (Holland), to a self-made woman elected to high political office at a young age, just a few years later. And the book tells the story not in the manner of a fairy tale, but gives the details of the hard-fought battles that helped shape this woman of character and insight.

I was fascinated to see how Ali goes from accepting the dogma that religion is required to be moral, to being able to question the dogmas in her mind, and working out for herself what morality would mean on her terms, outside of religious dogmas.

Her honest questioning and thinking reminds me of another woman immigrant from an oppressive regime who became a thinker/writer and provocateur and burst on the scene in the 1940s...and who has impacted thinking in the United States: Ayn Rand.

I wonder if Ayaan has read Ayn's formulation of a full secular morality, or the serious academic books on the topic, such as Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist published by Cambridge University Press.

I'd be interested to learn what Ayaan thinks of Ayn, given their very different, but in a way similar, paths of independently forming their own ideas.

I liked this book very much, it provided a very clean look into the inner workings of Islam, and provided a great deal of insight into several other subject areas, for instance what is happening to Europe with the steady influx of refugees as governments collapse and reshape in both Africa and the Middle East. What seemed to really happen with the Somali government and why the situation has not repaired itself to date. This book is fun to read, I could see illustrations of good over evil. How she came about finding herself, and the rift that she had with her father, who was absent for a fair part of her life, her relationship with her mother and her attempts to save her sister from amongst other things, herself. This book is very much about a lady who overcame obstacles, both internal and external to become herself, an politician and a reasonable human being. She has done good things by writing this book and many of us who are not Muslim would do well to read this.

This remarkable woman has traveled the world, in time, space, and cultural dimensions in an epic journey worthy of Odysseus. Her memoir sheds much light on some of the central issues of today. Her journey commenced in one of the world's poorest non-states, Somalia, where allegiance to the tribe is paramount. The cruel rule of Siad Barre, an adherent of the communist ideology, eventually disintegrated into tribal civil war, the worst kind of war, and she wisely fled the country with her family, seeking refuge first in Saudi Arabia, to avoid the war with Ethiopia, later in Kenya to avoid the civil war. Her father was very active politically, in opposition to Barre, and as so many in that role, clearly neglected his familial obligations. She honestly discusses her tumultuous relationship with her mother. Her culture affected her profoundly, both with the anti-female dogma that imprisons a woman in her mind, and physically -- she was subjected to female sexual mutilation.

I found Chapter 6, "Doubt and Defiance" powerful as she first begins to question some the dogma that she has been fed since birth. She is drawn to the fundamentalist message espoused by Boqol Sawm, and a milder version espoused by Sister Aziza. She identifies one of the basic causes for the appeal of fundamentalism - the social network, and their honest behavior that serves as a stark counterpoint to the corrupt Westernized elite. She was able to personally experience the hypocrisy of so many preachers (be they religious or secular) when her friend Abshir would preach his sermons of sin, and then proceed to kiss her afterwards. The section on rescuing some refugees from the Somalia-Kenya border was heartbreaking.

Almost certainly the most critical decision she made in her life was to flee a forced marriage, and seek refuge in the Netherlands. She undertook this courageous decision, and implemented it essentially without any support. She is stunned by the orderliness and functionality of this "infidel" country, and broadens her outlook first as an interpreter, latter, she graduates from the prestigious Univ. of Leiden. In the end she rejects the faith of her birth, and makes a short movie, entitled Submission I, with the anti-female verses in the Koran painted on the bodies of semi-clad women. This lead to the brutal murder of Theo van Gogh by a Muslim fanatic. She is the target of numerous death threats herself, receives heavy security from the Dutch police, and in a sad ironic twist to her life, is stripped of her Dutch citizenship, and must seek refuge in America.

Whew! An incredible journey, with enough transitions to exhaust several lifetimes of "future shock." It is only natural that alter boys who have been sexually abused by Catholic priests, or Mormons who have fled the strictures of their religion, and are labeled "apostates," to reserve their primary animus for the religion that has abused them. So too in Ms. Ali's case. She reserves much anger for those who say: "but on the other hand.....", for example, p270, "Infuriatingly stupid analysts--especially people who called themselves Arabists, yet who seemed to know next to nothing about the reality of the Islamic world--wrote reams of commentary. Their articles were all about Islam saving Aristotle and the zero..... These were fairy tales, nothing to do with the real world I knew."

As she finds herself in yet another world, with her critical intellect, might it be possible that she do a "Submission II"? Imagine the verses of the Bible that are both despicably cruel and anti-female painted on female bodies. There is no shortage of them: Leviticus 21:9, on the requirement to burn prostitutes; Deuteronomy 22:23, on stoning a virgin who was "in town" and had sex; Leviticus 20:18 on the exiling of a married couple for having sex during her period. That is a very short list, all believed to be the absolute word of God, by fundamentalist Christians and Jews. She might also realize that religion is only one mechanism for keeping "women in their place." She might read Susan Faludi's seminal book, "Backlash--The Undeclared War Against American Women." "Islam" is not in the index to this book. Most of what Ms. Faludi painfully documents has nothing to do with any religion--mainly it is secular actions that have been taken to keep the women down--in America, certainly including removing the Equal Rights Amendment from American political discourse.

In terms of those "Infuriatingly stupid analysts," who raise inconvenient questions like: Why have Muslim countries such as Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia all had women in the number one political leadership position, yet the United States and France never have?; she might articulate an answer other than we are stupid.

She concludes her book with: "But to me, there is far worse moral corruption in Islamic countries. In those societies, cruelty is implacable and inequality is the law of the land. Dissidents are tortured (!)... (Exclamation point added) p350. She might want to read Robert Sheer's "Cri de Coeur" on America's open adoption of torture, and endless imprisonment without charge as published on TruthDig. She now works for the American Enterprise Institute, the very heartland of the neocon ideology of the promotion of endless war (see the excellent BBC documentary, "The Power of Nightmares.") The AEI has some of the most prominent neocons on their staff: Irving Kristol, Richard Pearle, Paul Wolfowitz and perhaps most infamously, John Yoo, who is the principal architect of providing the legal basis, and absolution from prosecution, for torture.

I'm rooting for her. The journey is not complete. She can revisit her Chapter 6, "Doubt and Defiance," with the neocon tribe, and realize their own "black and white" ideology of cruel, endless war against the other to be, in large measure, the flip side of those Islamic fanatics that she so rightly detests. I might even suggest a title for her next book: "What I discussed around the water cooler with John Yoo?"

This remarkable woman has traveled the world, in time, space, and cultural dimensions in an epic journey worthy of Odysseus. Her memoir sheds much light on some of the central issues of today. Her journey commenced in one of the world's poorest non-states, Somalia, where allegiance to the tribe is paramount. The cruel rule of Siad Barre, an adherent of the communist ideology, eventually disintegrated into tribal civil war, the worst kind of war, and she wisely fled the country with her family, seeking refuge first in Saudi Arabia, to avoid the war with Ethiopia, later in Kenya to avoid the civil war. Her father was very active politically, in opposition to Barre, and as so many in that role, clearly neglected his familial obligations. She honestly discusses her tumultuous relationship with her mother. Her culture affected her profoundly, both with the anti-female dogma that imprisons a woman in her mind, and physically -- she was subjected to female sexual mutilation.

I found Chapter 6, "Doubt and Defiance" powerful as she first begins to question some the dogma that she has been fed since birth. She is drawn to the fundamentalist message espoused by Boqol Sawm, and a milder version espoused by Sister Aziza. She identifies one of the basic causes for the appeal of fundamentalism - the social network, and their honest behavior that serves as a stark counterpoint to the corrupt Westernized elite. She was able to personally experience the hypocrisy of so many preachers (be they religious or secular) when her friend Abshir would preach his sermons of sin, and then proceed to kiss her afterwards. The section on rescuing some refugees from the Somalia-Kenya border was heartbreaking.

Almost certainly the most critical decision she made in her life was to flee a forced marriage, and seek refuge in the Netherlands. She undertook this courageous decision, and implemented it essentially without any support. She is stunned by the orderliness and functionality of this "infidel" country, and broadens her outlook first as an interpreter, latter, she graduates from the prestigious Univ. of Leiden. In the end she rejects the faith of her birth, and makes a short movie, entitled Submission I, with the anti-female verses in the Koran painted on the bodies of semi-clad women. This lead to the brutal murder of Theo van Gogh by a Muslim fanatic. She is the target of numerous death threats herself, receives heavy security from the Dutch police, and in a sad ironic twist to her life, is stripped of her Dutch citizenship, and must seek refuge in America.

Whew! An incredible journey, with enough transitions to exhaust several lifetimes of "future shock." It is only natural that alter boys who have been sexually abused by Catholic priests, or Mormons who have fled the strictures of their religion, and are labeled "apostates," to reserve their primary animus for the religion that has abused them. So too in Ms. Ali's case. She reserves much anger for those who say: "but on the other hand.....", for example, p270, "Infuriatingly stupid analysts--especially people who called themselves Arabists, yet who seemed to know next to nothing about the reality of the Islamic world--wrote reams of commentary. Their articles were all about Islam saving Aristotle and the zero..... These were fairy tales, nothing to do with the real world I knew."

As she finds herself in yet another world, with her critical intellect, might it be possible that she do a "Submission II"? Imagine the verses of the Bible that are both despicably cruel and anti-female painted on female bodies. There is no shortage of them: Leviticus 21:9, on the requirement to burn prostitutes; Deuteronomy 22:23, on stoning a virgin who was "in town" and had sex; Leviticus 20:18 on the exiling of a married couple for having sex during her period. That is a very short list, all believed to be the absolute word of God, by fundamentalist Christians and Jews. She might also realize that religion is only one mechanism for keeping "women in their place." She might read Susan Faludi's seminal book, "Backlash--The Undeclared War Against American Women." "Islam" is not in the index to this book. Most of what Ms. Faludi painfully documents has nothing to do with any religion--mainly it is secular actions that have been taken to keep the women down--in America, certainly including removing the Equal Rights Amendment from American political discourse.

In terms of those "Infuriatingly stupid analysts," who raise inconvenient questions like: Why have Muslim countries such as Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia all had women in the number one political leadership position, yet the United States and France never have?; she might articulate an answer other than we are stupid.

She concludes her book with: "But to me, there is far worse moral corruption in Islamic countries. In those societies, cruelty is implacable and inequality is the law of the land. Dissidents are tortured (!)... (Exclamation point added) p350. She might want to read Robert Sheer's "Cri de Coeur" on America's open adoption of torture, and endless imprisonment without charge ([...]). She now works for the American Enterprise Institute, the very heartland of the neocon ideology of the promotion of endless war (see the excellent BBC documentary, "The Power of Nightmares.") The AEI has some of the most prominent neocons on their staff: Irving Kristol, Richard Pearle, Paul Wolfowitz and perhaps most infamously, John Yoo, who is the principal architect of providing the legal basis, and absolution from prosecution, for torture.

I'm rooting for her. The journey is not complete. She can revisit her Chapter 6, "Doubt and Defiance," with the neocon tribe, and realize their own "black and white" ideology of cruel, endless war against the other to be, in large measure, the flip side of those Islamic fanatics that she so rightly detests. I might even suggest a title for her next book: "What I discussed around the water cooler with John Yoo?"

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.