Ayaan’s grandmother makes her and her siblings memorize their lineage going back 800 years, apparently a common practice in cultures where kinship ties often need to be leveraged for material assistance. Her given name is Ayaan Hirsi Magan, of the Darod clan. The book opens with a series of reminiscences and anecdotes about Ayaan’s childhood that seem to demonstrate the superstition and cruelty that she sees as problematic aspects of Islamic societies. Reactions to the book have been highly politically charged, with many admirers of Hirsi Ali reviewing it favorably and commending her courage. The book chronicles her controversial activism and her political career, and ends with the murder of her collaborator Theo van Gogh by a Muslim man of Moroccan origin. The story begins in her childhood and follows Ayaan as she moves with her family from Mogadishu to Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia to Kenya, escapes from a forced marriage and settles in the Netherlands. Infidel (2007, Free Press) is an autobiographical memoir by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born woman who left the Islamic faith and now campaigns for awareness of the plight of women in Muslim societies and for Islamic liberalization.
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