Infidel

Has any well-informed person not heard of Ayaan Hirsi Ali? She is the scholar and activist who was to receive an honorary degree from Brandeis this year, but whose offer was rescinded after protests by student groups and CAIR.She's a brave and outspoken advocate for women's rights, particularly when it comes to female castration, honor killings, and forced marriages justified by Islam. Infidel is her story from war-torn Somalia to the American Enterprise Institute in DC, and it is amazing.

This is an amazing book by an amazing woman. As she says herself, how many girl babies born in Somalia in 1969 are even still alive, let alone living the life she has lived for the last 20 years? From Somalia to Saudi Arabia, to Kenya and finally The Netherlands and the United States, she survives all of the hardships in her path, and even thrives. Her dedication to her education and her refusal to be a victim make her a role model for all of us.

She first rose to prominence as a member of the Dutch Parliament, and gained terrible fame when movie maker Theo Van Gogh was brutally murdered - with a note stabbed into his chest indicating that she would be next. An outspoken and brave opponent of the evils of radical Islam, she lives her life seemingly without fear. As she writes in her book, during her childhood in Somalia and Saudi Arabia, anything could kill you - a germ, a flood, the police, even your father or brother. To live in fear is just not in her to do.

Her book is a revelation, and her life is an education to everyone, female or male. She is an amazing woman. I highly recommend her book.

Infidel