Rethinking Orientalism of Muslims in Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel

Abstract

Edward Said’s Orientalism questions the Western representation of the Eastern ‘other’, especially the Arab Muslims. A misrepresentation that has always treated the orient with inferiority; as barbaric and backward compared to the refined, reasoning and advanced Occident. This form of representation is what Ayaan Hirsi Ali embarked on in her bestselling memoir Infidel (2007). It chronicles her geographical journey from Somalia to Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Netherlands, and her flight from Islam to Atheism. A belief system she finds more appealing to reasoning than Islam which is (according to her) backward and barbaric. Her steadfast criticism of Islam is vividly reflected in her memoir, which ascribes the oppression and tribulations of women to Islam, irrespective of geographical or cultural influence. Such claims are tantamount to feminist Orientalism of Muslim women, whose claims of liberating Muslim women and rescuing them from the oppressive Islam cannot be overemphasized. This paper argues that the practices of misogyny are rooted in culture and not Islam. Thus, it investigates three main points which are central to the ‘Islam oppresses women’ debate: Female Genital Mutilation, Early and/or Forced Marriage and Women as sex objects. Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism as a continuation of Orientalism, propose solutions to the identified problems in Orientalism, which is to unread the misrepresentations by identifying submerged details. Through a contrapuntal reading of Infidel (2007), this study counter-narrates the distortion of Islam by drawing upon authentic Islamic sources.