The Caged Virgin - Ayaan Hirsi Ali [0]
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Originally published in The Netherlands in 2004 as De Maagdenkooi by Uitgeverij Augustus (Amstel Publishers, b.v.)
Published by arrangement with Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Uitgeverij Augustus, part of Amstel Publishers, b.v.
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De Zoontjesfabriek, De Maagdenkooi, Submission, Vreemde Situaties copyright © 2002, 2004 by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Augustus Publishers. Ik Wil dat Hier en Nu Gebeurt copyright © 2002 by Colet Van der Ven. Politiek Schadelijk voor mijn Ideaal copyright © 2003 by Arjan Visser. English translation copyright © 2006 by Jane Brown
With grateful acknowledgment to the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature for their kind assistance
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9990-9
ISBN-10: 0-7432-9990-6
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To the spirit of liberty
Contents
Preface: Breaking Through the Islamic Curtain
1 Stand Up for Your Rights!Women in Islam
2 Why Can’t We Take a Critical Look at Ourselves?
3 The Virgins’ Cage
4 Let Us Have a Voltaire
5 What Went Wrong?A Modern Clash of Cultures
6 A Brief Personal History of My Emancipation
7 Being a Politician Is Not My Ideal
8 Bin Laden’s NightmareInterview with Irshad Manji
9 Freedom Requires Constant Vigilance
10 Four Women’s Lives
11 How to Deal with Domestic Violence More Effectively
12 Genital Mutilation Must Not Be Tolerated
13 Ten Tips for Muslim Women Who Want to Leave
14 Submission: Part I
15 The Need for Self-Reflection Within Islam
16 Portrait of a Heroine as a Young Woman
17 A Call for Clear Thinking
Notes
Index
Preface
Breaking Through
the Islamic Curtain
The attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, prompted the West to launch a massive appeal to Muslims around the world to reflect on their religion and culture. American President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and numerous other leaders in the West asked Muslim organizations in their countries to distance themselves from Islam as preached by these nineteen terrorists. This plea was met with indignation from Muslims who thought it was inappropriate to hold them responsible for the criminal conduct of nineteen young men. Yet the fact that the people who committed the attacks on September 11 were Muslims, and the fact that before this date Muslims in many parts of the world were already harboring feelings of immense resentment toward the United States in particular, have urged me to investigate whether the roots of evil can be traced to the faith I grew up with: was the aggression, the hatred inherent in Islam itself?
My parents brought me up to be a Muslim—a good Muslim. Islam dominated the lives of our family and relations down to the smallest detail. It was our ideology, our political conviction, our moral standard, our law, and our identity. We were first and foremost Muslim and only then Somali. Muslims, as we were taught the meaning of the name, are people who submit themselves to Allah’s will, which is found in the Koran and the Hadith, a collection of sayings ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad. I was taught that Islam sets us apart from the rest of the world, the world of non-Muslims. We Muslims are chosen by God. They, the others, the kaffirs, the unbelievers, are antisocial, impure, barbaric, not circumcised, immoral, unscrupulous, and above all, obscene; they have no respect for women; their girls and women are whores; many of the men are homosexual; men and women have sex without being married. The unfaithful are cursed, and God will punish them most atrociously in the hereafter.
When my sister and I were small, we would occasionally make remarks about nice people who were not Muslim, but my mother and grandmother would always say, “No,