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Introduction
“Infidel” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an autobiographical book. It is considered a New York Times bestseller. Reviewing this book, The New York Times described it as a “brave, inspiring and beautifully written memoir” (Grimes, February 14, 2007). The title of the book is indeed significant as it represents to the reader the whole spectrum of issues that the writer tries to reveal to the reader through her book. The term “infidel” is used here to identify the author as a person who “betrayed” the Muslim religion and believes and begin to fight for women’s rights (what does not fit Muslim traditions).
Main body
In this book, the author describes the traditions, beliefs, and views of Islam that caused the suffering of many women. That is why, providing the reader with the example of her own life, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tries to explain that her life, as well as the life of other Muslims, is indeed more difficult and complex than many West society people may have realized. Another sharp issue that she exploits in her book is the tendency that might be regarded as a weakness of the Western society, to search for simplistic and common explanations for complex cultural problems.
In her autobiographical book, Ayaan Hirsi Ali describes her entire life: her youth path in Ethiopia, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya. “Somalia’s government provided…[ Hirsi Ali] with an eventful childhood. [Her] father, an opponent of the country’s Soviet-backed dictator, spent years in prison. The family, living on clan charity, moved to Saudi Arabia, where [she recoiled] at the local interpretation of Islam, and later to Ethiopia and Kenya” (Hirsi Ali, 2007, pp. 34-35, 49-53, 98-99). She writes about her flight to the Netherlands where she then applied for political refuge. She describes this as her journey “from the world of faith to the world of reason” (Hirsi Ali, 2007, p. 134). But wherever author traveled, she was becoming a sort of “misfit”. Following this, she reveals her experience in Leiden’s university and Labour Party.
After that, she tells about her transfer to another political group –“the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy”; thus, the story of Hirsi Ali’s life path leads the reader to her election to Parliament. Within this context, she reveals her feelings and attitude to the murder of Theo van Gogh, “with whom she made the film Submission” (Hirsi Ali, 2007, p. 186), which encouraged Muslim women to fight for their rights. This happened in the following way: “The Muslim Fanatic, after shooting the filmmaker Theo van Gogh dead on an Amsterdam street, pinned a letter to Mr. van Gogh’s chest with a knife”, the letter was addressed to the writer and it “called for holy war against the West and, more specifically, for [her] death” (Hirsi Ali, 2007, p. 235-237). The “Infidel” ends with the author’s life experience – “the controversy regarding her citizenship”, which “helped bring down the Dutch government” (Hirsi Ali, 2007, pp. 357-359).
Tracing not only authors but the entire women’s experiences, it would be relevant to mention that Hirsi Ali’s book consists of her observations on such issues. She is concerned and challenged by the Muslim doctrines on the inflexible role of women in family and society. The author discusses women’s need to submit to men (for example, when she does not go with her husband to Canada, but lives with him and moves alone to the Netherlands, she “disgraces her family”; some women were even killed for such sin). As for herself, Hirsi Ali writes: “Life on earth is a test, and I was failing it, even though I was trying as hard as I knew how to,” within this context she is also concerned about other women’s feelings over this issue. In her book author raises the problem of many women which sounds like this: “I was failing as a Muslim” (Hirsi Ali, 2007, pp. 146-151).
Another problem within this context lies on the issue of Muslim women from the societies, based on clan and tribal social system, coming to the West and getting socially lost pressed and burdened by other people’s attitude toward them, the problem of too many choices estrangement, dislocation in their views and values. A similar situation happens to the author’s sister, who also comes to the Netherlands, she “sinks into deep depression and psychosis” (Hirsi Ali, 2007, p. 162).
Conclusion
As a conclusion, it should be pointed out that in her “Infidel”, Ayaan Hirsi Ali challenges the sharp issues of Islam and encourages Muslim women, with the example of her own life, to reject their traditionally unrepugnant role.
Works Cited
Grimes, William. No Rest for a Feminist Fighting Radical Islam. New York Times. 2007.
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan. “Infidel”. New York: Free Press, 2007.
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