Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. © 2007 Free Press. ISBN 0743289689. Hardback. Memoir/Non-Fiction. 353 pages. $15.00 US. [ Purchase ] Source: local library
I would venture to say that this was one of, if not the, most important books I have read in quite some time. Ayaan Hirsi Ali ventures chronologically through her life, beginning with a youth in Somalia that was shaped by the experiences of her mother and grandmother. Both her family’s religious roots in Islam and the deeply tribal nature of Somalia (and many parts of Africa) heavily influenced her youth and life.
My attention held fast throughout the 350 pages as she struggled through female mutilation, living in Saudi Arabia where her mother sought the roots of the Islamic faith, returning not to the war-torn and Islamic Somalia but the safer and Christian Kenya. She strives to discover how to align her lineage of tribalism with devout Islam and the downcast women she encounters. Without downplaying the strife of her own life – being beaten by her mother and made to live up to unrealistic expectations, Hirsi Ali presents a reality that Western minds often try to ignore or write off as archaic and irrelevant. Read the rest of this entry »
