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nonabgo's review
4.0
I've had this book for ages, one of those you get because everyone raves about it and then you forget about it. I also find it hard to start books I know will be hard to read, so I keep putting them off until something clicks. And given the current Afghanistan context... it happened to click. Unhappily so, I would add.
I think it's hard for us, Europeans, to really, truly understand what Islam is. Not even scholars who study it for years and years can uncover all its layers, all the ways people interpret it in each country where its prevalent. But we can try, and do it with an open mind (which, I know, is hard, especially given the international context and everything that has happened in the world since 9/11). As a person who does not consider herself as pertaining to any religious belief, I think I can detach myself from religious implications and dissect it coldly, as, I think, any belief system should be in the 21st century.
I am trying to make this review not about Islam, but about the book, but it's hard to detach the two, because the book would not have existed without Hirsi Ali escaping Islam. I found her story skin-crawling. Although we have discrimination and abuse, and lots of it (I do not, by any chance, represent the majority of women in my country), what I've read about in this book made me scream inside. Scream of pain, of rage that such awful things can happen to a woman, to a human being. To be considered someone's property, to be beaten and mutilated because some religion says to is way beyond my imagination. We are lucky to live in a place where such things have not been the norm for centuries, lucky to have had a Spinoza, a Francis Bacon, a Montesquieu, so many thinkers who put the basis of secularism in the so-called "Western" world.
I was surprised at how almost-detached Hirsi Ali's recount is; how clear, surgical her phrasing. Despite her background, her experience, she educated herself, made it a purpose to transmit her message in a poignant, rational, common-sense fashion, to be understood by everyone who keeps an open mind (and maybe raise doubts in the minds of people who are not so open). Maybe this writing style makes the book even more gruesome. Sentimentalism is easy and it's often condemned in women, people tend to consider them weak, unreliable. And the last thing we want with such a book is an "unreliable" (in some people's views) narrator. She keeps everything grounded and that's how we start asking questions, that's how we begin debating.
This brutally honest book questions everything about Islam, but especially the treatment of women. It's a coming-of-age story, not only about growing up and growing into oneself, but also about questioning and demolishing, in the end, each and every belief she grew up with, while losing and rediscovering herself and her family over and over again. To me, Ayaan is a hero. She had and still has the courage to speak up for the women who were not as lucky as herself - and she recognizes her luck. She also has the courage to speak up against the softness of the Western world when it comes to handling Muslim issues; too afraid to be considered racist, the Western people enable abuse and violence under the umbrella of respecting "multiculturalism", instead of fighting to integrate the immigrants. We need to wake up, and soon, if we care about European values.
I cannot recommend this brave woman's book (and speeches, and short film) enough, especially in the current context. Please read it.
I think it's hard for us, Europeans, to really, truly understand what Islam is. Not even scholars who study it for years and years can uncover all its layers, all the ways people interpret it in each country where its prevalent. But we can try, and do it with an open mind (which, I know, is hard, especially given the international context and everything that has happened in the world since 9/11). As a person who does not consider herself as pertaining to any religious belief, I think I can detach myself from religious implications and dissect it coldly, as, I think, any belief system should be in the 21st century.
I am trying to make this review not about Islam, but about the book, but it's hard to detach the two, because the book would not have existed without Hirsi Ali escaping Islam. I found her story skin-crawling. Although we have discrimination and abuse, and lots of it (I do not, by any chance, represent the majority of women in my country), what I've read about in this book made me scream inside. Scream of pain, of rage that such awful things can happen to a woman, to a human being. To be considered someone's property, to be beaten and mutilated because some religion says to is way beyond my imagination. We are lucky to live in a place where such things have not been the norm for centuries, lucky to have had a Spinoza, a Francis Bacon, a Montesquieu, so many thinkers who put the basis of secularism in the so-called "Western" world.
I was surprised at how almost-detached Hirsi Ali's recount is; how clear, surgical her phrasing. Despite her background, her experience, she educated herself, made it a purpose to transmit her message in a poignant, rational, common-sense fashion, to be understood by everyone who keeps an open mind (and maybe raise doubts in the minds of people who are not so open). Maybe this writing style makes the book even more gruesome. Sentimentalism is easy and it's often condemned in women, people tend to consider them weak, unreliable. And the last thing we want with such a book is an "unreliable" (in some people's views) narrator. She keeps everything grounded and that's how we start asking questions, that's how we begin debating.
This brutally honest book questions everything about Islam, but especially the treatment of women. It's a coming-of-age story, not only about growing up and growing into oneself, but also about questioning and demolishing, in the end, each and every belief she grew up with, while losing and rediscovering herself and her family over and over again. To me, Ayaan is a hero. She had and still has the courage to speak up for the women who were not as lucky as herself - and she recognizes her luck. She also has the courage to speak up against the softness of the Western world when it comes to handling Muslim issues; too afraid to be considered racist, the Western people enable abuse and violence under the umbrella of respecting "multiculturalism", instead of fighting to integrate the immigrants. We need to wake up, and soon, if we care about European values.
I cannot recommend this brave woman's book (and speeches, and short film) enough, especially in the current context. Please read it.
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