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Infidel is an amazing book. Due to the influence of television, I had heard of female genital mutilation (a barbaric practice) and the burka, but had always wondered why anyone in their right minds would agree to such things, never mind agreeing to them in the name of faith.This book gives one an insight into that world and helps us understand the religion and culture of Islam. As it happens, I was born and raised as a Christian. I had very few clear ideas about Islam. I can only hope that by uncovering the terrible repression of women in this society, perhaps one day we can actually uncover the faces of the women and open up their lives to equality.Thank you to Ms. Ali for an amazing window into Isam.
She doesn't attack Islam, she merely points out its shortcomings, which she has experienced for herself firsthand. Wow - I could not put this book down. She is a daring, courageous woman for the way she has chosen to live her life, and for calling out Islam the way she has. From her horrid childhood to her daring escape to her phenomenal rise in Holland, Ali is nothing short of a miracle - and a prophet. Her message is vital, critical and timely. Hopefully she will continue to write and speak out because her message needs to be heard. A beautifully written book by a beautiful human being.
An excellent book. She tells her story in a way that makes you not want to put the book down. The book arrived on time and in the condition stated.
It is hard to imagine in 2009 that so many Muslim countries still live by such outdated ideas. Infidel is very well written. I am so proud of Ayaan Hirsi Ali for her braverly in being the person she is today. Reading this book gave me so much more insight about the Muslim Religion and how it affect the person. The book has so many examples of how the women in the Muslim world live. She has done so much for so many women who are afraid to speak out on their own. We can all learn from Ayaan, that we must be true to ourselves without the fear of reprisal.
It is therefore problematic and unwise to assume that the conditions of women in rural Somalia are similar to the conditions of 500 billion other Muslim women around the world that live in nearly every country and occupy every social class.Secondly, the selective quotation of scripture in order to support claims made about the actions and experiences of anyone living today (Muslim and otherwise) is intellectually dishonest. There are many problems with this approach, and the dangers of relying upon this sort of logic are multiplied when the topic of a book like this is as politically volatile as Islam, or Muslim immigrants in the West. While she has a compelling personal story (although the accuracy of her account has been called into question elsewhere, here I will assume that she is basically telling the truth), a basic premise of her book seems to be that this story can be extrapolated and assumed to apply to all Muslim women, or to all women living in majority Muslim countries. Just because they are in the Bible doesn't mean that our everyday lives are governed by them.
For example, she may recount a negative interaction that she experienced with other immigrants in the Somali diaspora community in Holland and then bolster her recollection of this event with a quotation from the Quran which she interprets as sanctioning the oppression of women, and together these two pieces of evidence (her negative personal experiences and her selected quotation of scripture) serve to prove her claim that Islam itself is an oppressive religion, especially regarding the treatment of women. Like other reviewers I was disappointed both by the claims that this author makes about Islam in general and the way in which she arrives at her conclusions. Just as the author points to various passages in the Quran that prove her point that Islam is oppressive and subjugates women, and that this explains an apparent tendency to oppress women in the Muslim world, I can point to passages in the Bible that, by her logic, would indicate that Christianity itself is antifeminist: "For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Most Christians probably don't condone slavery, even though they will admit that the Bible is basically true, just as most Muslims probably agree that woman and men deserve equal rights, even though some can point to passages in scripture that, interpreted a certain way, seem to contradict this.Finally, it says something about our culture in the West that we are so eager to read books by Muslim authors that have turned away from Islam and criticize it as "former Muslims." Why should the only Muslim voices that we clamber to consume be authors that try so hard to confirm our own stereotypes about Islam. First of all, Somalia is frankly one of the worst places on the face of the Earth to grow up.
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man." (I Corinthians 11:8-9)And as most people will admit, in the Bible one can find any number of passages that sanction the oppression of women, slavery, murder, etc. We don't learn anything by reading a book that essentially tells us what we already think we know, but it is satisfying to read something by a supposed expert telling us that, yes, we were right all along and that Muslims are indeed evil. Her account is peppered with quotations from the Quran and other Islamic sources that she uses to support her claims about the religion, which are then evidently born out by her personal experience. Sacred scriptures are rarely used by anyone to govern and interpret their everyday lives. I don't wish to minimize her personal experiences, which if true are certainly tragic, and I realize that I have never lived as a woman myself in Somalia or in any other country, but it seems reasonable to venture that living as a woman in Somalia is considerably worse than living in Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, or any number of other "Muslim" countries.
Conflict zones are not generally known as places where gender equality and human rights are dully respected. People pick and choose which parts of the scripture are useful to them and live by them, whether they admit it or not. It seems like it would be much more productive and instructive to read the voices of Muslim feminists who, like most Muslim women, articulate their identity within the religion, rather than capitalize on a compelling personal story to construct a lucrative writing and speaking career around Islam bashing.
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