Infidel

Abstract

In Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s goal is to provide “a subjective record (p. xii)”of her extraordinary life, a life that straddles six countries – Somalia, SaudiArabia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Holland, and the United States – in merely threedecades. The book’s title, however, suggests that this personal narrativeprobes well beyond the travels and escapades of a young African girl intimes of deep economic strife and political instability. Rather, Infidel mapsout a spiritual journey in reverse, what might be described as an anti-Islamicemigration “from the world of faith to the world of reason – from the worldof excision and forced marriage to the world of sexual emancipation” (pp.347-48).The work is divided into two parts. The first, “My Childhood,” tracksHirsiAli’s early years on the move with hermother, sister, and brother as herfather, beloved but perpetually absent, waged coup after coup againstMuhammad Siad Barre with the Somali Salvation Democratic Front(SSDF). Often he was deported or jailed.As a result, family life for HirsiAliwas far fromideal.After narrating her own birth, six weeks early, shemuses,“[p]erhaps my parents were happy” (p. 17). Tales of economic destitution,political corruption, and a mother who possessed all the symptoms of asevere depressive or schizophrenic suggest the young girl suffered greatphysical and emotional violence throughout her early years.Clearly, at a young age, her coping strategy was to lash out against herelders through ridicule and rebellion, despite the inevitable consequences.As a child, HirsiAli often spat at her grandmother.When hermother orderedher to make ink for the ma`alim who taught her the Qur’an, HirsiAli lockedherself in the bathroom and refused to come out for hours.Another time, shewas too tired to wash up the dishes after dinner, so she hid them all, crusted,in the refrigerator for a day. As a teenager, she devoured sensual romancenovels and trashy thrillers that aroused in her sexual feelings, even thoughshe “knew that doing so was resisting Islam in the most basic way” (p. 94).She also stole visits and kisses with a number of boyfriends, knowing fullwell her family’s disapproval.These seemingly petty alternatives to direct conflict with authority figuresand institutions were, perhaps, the only avenues available to the youngHirsi Ali to assert any control over hostile forces that denied her power overher own existence. These episodes reveal a world that, for Hirsi Ali, is ...