Ayaan Hirsi Ali's life and deeds have made her simultaneously a heroine and a villain depending upon your point of view. Her's is the incredible story of a Somali Muslim woman who till her early twenties lived the life of many other women in deeply conservative Muslim societies, who enroute to an arranged marriage manages to escape to the Netherlands, finds refuge there, is ostracized by her family and community, educates herself, becomes a Member of the Dutch parliament, courageously speaks, writes and makes films against the bias and the violence against women in Islam and becomes both an icon and a role model to Muslim women as well as an object of vilification of Muslims worldwide. Theo Van Gogh her partner in making the controversial film Submission, was subsequently murdered by a Muslim as retribution for the documentary. Such is the hatred she has garnered for her views that for the past several years Hirsi Ali has lived her life under a heavy security cover.
Infidel is her story.
It is a work that spoke to me on two levels.
The first was at that of Ayaan's perception of all that what she went through as a Muslim woman in a deeply conservative Islamic society & culture. A brutal feminine circumcision at age 7, the incessant indoctrination of woman's lesser state and how this was how God meant it to be, seeing the diminished lives of mother, grandmother and other feminine relations and friends, having her skull broken by an Islamic teacher who thought physical abuse would teach her the right way, living in a broken home, the innumerable restrictions on every dimension of existence from clothing, appearance and movement, emotion, expression, life choices, the lack of educational opportunities, the gulf in freedoms given to her brother and to herself or her sister. The constant claustrophobic admonitions of lay preachers, acolytes, evangelists, relatives who had seen the light.
There were times as I read the book, that I had to stop reading and do something else for a few minutes just to calm down. It is impossible not to be swept up by the book and the world and experiences it describes.
You suffer with Ayaan as she goes through a sequence of traumatic episodes, you delight at her escape to Europe, you are in awe at the way this barely educated woman breaks out of various mental cocoons & barriers, chases impossible dreams of education and at her courage in speaking about Islam's treatment of women and fighting to ensure more freedom to Muslim women in the developed world.
It is a hero's story, well told. Ayaan has the gift of controlled narration. Her matter of fact style of reporting, unleavened by dramatic flourishes, directly speaks to the reader. And speak it already has to millions, some of whom are influential law makers. Ayaan's story and her talks on Islam and woman has led to steps to prevent violence and crime against Muslim women in Europe, the move to ban the Hijab and the increased negative focus on Islam itself as a religion. At least the first of this is good.
This is where the second level I spoke about butts in with inconvenient questions.
The second level has to do with two prominent global narratives at work today. One is the narration in the West and increasingly even in India, of the evil that is radical Islam, the conflation of this with 9/11, Al Qaeda, 26/11 and many other terrorism based horrors. The other narrative belongs to the Muslims, of the sense of Islam itself being under threat from the West, of Islamic countries being attacked, of Muslims being targeted for their religion and the need for a robust response. The blasphemous cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, Salman Rashdie, global war on terror all merge in this narration to create a sense of victimhood, of being the target of an imperialistic hegemonic Christian West which wants to finish off Islam. Two decades after Samuel Huntingdon, we are back in cliche land, of clashes between civilizations.
There is no middle ground between these two opposing narratives. And it is here that Ayaan's book is troubling because it feeds in so well, almost conveniently, with the Western narrative. Every word in Ayaan's book may well be true and it is as well to state that there is no reason to doubt her story (though there are some hiccups as a search on the net will show). But this dovetailing with the Western narrative on Islam does give a sense of unease that this will provide further fodder to those who are moving from targeting Islamic terrorism as in the specific to Islam as a religion in the general.
It reminds me of a controversial (now known to be flawed) study of the 60s (forget the name) which measured IQ levels of African Americans, found that it was lower than of other Americans and concluded that this was proof that blacks were sub-human. The study of course fed into white supremacist biases and was welcomed by Southern states while liberals naturally questioned the findings.
There is a similar divide at work right now about Islam and it does raise the issue of whether there might have been some literary creativity used by Ayaan to exaggerate experiences in order to feed a constituency which she knew would be the primary consumers of her work.
But even if we assume some artistic license, it remains a sobering and inspirational story of the systematic indoctrination and organized abuse that women go through in Islamic societies and that it is possible to break free and find freedom elsewhere.
A note to the Hindutva Indian reader: there may be a measure of Schadenfreude in reading Ayaan but a closer look at home will show that outside of urban India, the lot of Hindu women is scarcely better. We can begin with female infanticide that has led to India having one of the worst gender ratios in the world, the fact that female literacy, life expectancy lags woefully behind the male, the reality that girls are still viewed as a burden to the household and discriminated against in the matter of nourishment, education, health care and nurturing parental attention. Even today most Indian girls have little control over choice of partner, indeed are often just informed of their own nuptials, without a veto vote. The fate of Hindu widows is of course well documented. Dowry is still an ongoing practice in most communities. So is purdah. Even in many educated households, the "honour of the house" argument is used to stop the well educated wife from working. In others, the wife is magnanimously allowed to work but is expected to still cook, take care of the children and do all the housework prior to and subsequent to her work hours. So life is not exactly swarg to the average Indian woman.
Postscript: There are several videos featuring Ayaan (such as the seven part debate against Zeba Khan), the face to face with Fareed Zakaria, the 2 part discussion on HardTalk etc. Worth a watch.
Infidel is her story.
It is a work that spoke to me on two levels.
The first was at that of Ayaan's perception of all that what she went through as a Muslim woman in a deeply conservative Islamic society & culture. A brutal feminine circumcision at age 7, the incessant indoctrination of woman's lesser state and how this was how God meant it to be, seeing the diminished lives of mother, grandmother and other feminine relations and friends, having her skull broken by an Islamic teacher who thought physical abuse would teach her the right way, living in a broken home, the innumerable restrictions on every dimension of existence from clothing, appearance and movement, emotion, expression, life choices, the lack of educational opportunities, the gulf in freedoms given to her brother and to herself or her sister. The constant claustrophobic admonitions of lay preachers, acolytes, evangelists, relatives who had seen the light.
There were times as I read the book, that I had to stop reading and do something else for a few minutes just to calm down. It is impossible not to be swept up by the book and the world and experiences it describes.
You suffer with Ayaan as she goes through a sequence of traumatic episodes, you delight at her escape to Europe, you are in awe at the way this barely educated woman breaks out of various mental cocoons & barriers, chases impossible dreams of education and at her courage in speaking about Islam's treatment of women and fighting to ensure more freedom to Muslim women in the developed world.
It is a hero's story, well told. Ayaan has the gift of controlled narration. Her matter of fact style of reporting, unleavened by dramatic flourishes, directly speaks to the reader. And speak it already has to millions, some of whom are influential law makers. Ayaan's story and her talks on Islam and woman has led to steps to prevent violence and crime against Muslim women in Europe, the move to ban the Hijab and the increased negative focus on Islam itself as a religion. At least the first of this is good.
This is where the second level I spoke about butts in with inconvenient questions.
The second level has to do with two prominent global narratives at work today. One is the narration in the West and increasingly even in India, of the evil that is radical Islam, the conflation of this with 9/11, Al Qaeda, 26/11 and many other terrorism based horrors. The other narrative belongs to the Muslims, of the sense of Islam itself being under threat from the West, of Islamic countries being attacked, of Muslims being targeted for their religion and the need for a robust response. The blasphemous cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, Salman Rashdie, global war on terror all merge in this narration to create a sense of victimhood, of being the target of an imperialistic hegemonic Christian West which wants to finish off Islam. Two decades after Samuel Huntingdon, we are back in cliche land, of clashes between civilizations.
There is no middle ground between these two opposing narratives. And it is here that Ayaan's book is troubling because it feeds in so well, almost conveniently, with the Western narrative. Every word in Ayaan's book may well be true and it is as well to state that there is no reason to doubt her story (though there are some hiccups as a search on the net will show). But this dovetailing with the Western narrative on Islam does give a sense of unease that this will provide further fodder to those who are moving from targeting Islamic terrorism as in the specific to Islam as a religion in the general.
It reminds me of a controversial (now known to be flawed) study of the 60s (forget the name) which measured IQ levels of African Americans, found that it was lower than of other Americans and concluded that this was proof that blacks were sub-human. The study of course fed into white supremacist biases and was welcomed by Southern states while liberals naturally questioned the findings.
There is a similar divide at work right now about Islam and it does raise the issue of whether there might have been some literary creativity used by Ayaan to exaggerate experiences in order to feed a constituency which she knew would be the primary consumers of her work.
But even if we assume some artistic license, it remains a sobering and inspirational story of the systematic indoctrination and organized abuse that women go through in Islamic societies and that it is possible to break free and find freedom elsewhere.
A note to the Hindutva Indian reader: there may be a measure of Schadenfreude in reading Ayaan but a closer look at home will show that outside of urban India, the lot of Hindu women is scarcely better. We can begin with female infanticide that has led to India having one of the worst gender ratios in the world, the fact that female literacy, life expectancy lags woefully behind the male, the reality that girls are still viewed as a burden to the household and discriminated against in the matter of nourishment, education, health care and nurturing parental attention. Even today most Indian girls have little control over choice of partner, indeed are often just informed of their own nuptials, without a veto vote. The fate of Hindu widows is of course well documented. Dowry is still an ongoing practice in most communities. So is purdah. Even in many educated households, the "honour of the house" argument is used to stop the well educated wife from working. In others, the wife is magnanimously allowed to work but is expected to still cook, take care of the children and do all the housework prior to and subsequent to her work hours. So life is not exactly swarg to the average Indian woman.
Postscript: There are several videos featuring Ayaan (such as the seven part debate against Zeba Khan), the face to face with Fareed Zakaria, the 2 part discussion on HardTalk etc. Worth a watch.
Enjoyed the review, Vivek.
ReplyDeleteRemember reading this book some years ago. Her rhetorical style makes it impossible to be indifferent. Her later work, in contrast, left me unmoved. She also didn't seem to be all that free in the new world. Perhaps long imprisonment can leave you with a longing for a different kind of order rather than a longing for freedom.
And I second the sentiments on the schadenfreude crowd.
Anil
Yes, her more recent writing has changed in tone. I suspect it is because she feels her's can no longer be just an individual's view but represents certain groups (on Atheism with Harris, Hitchens, Dawkins and on Islam with Irshad Manji, Harris, Geert Wilders). She has moved from Labour to right wing Liberal. Not sure how much of this is based on conviction.
ReplyDeleteAnd oh yes, I can full believe that the kind of imprisonment and stress she is undergoing (constantly being moved from one safe house to another, knowing that there is a whole cottage industry out there sharing notes on her location to get one crack at her) can wear you out. I have often wondered whether Salman Rushdie, in his heart of hearts, has regretted writing Satanic verses.
Still, Infidel is a great read.
That was interesting, Vivek. I am yet to read a book by Ayaan, it is on my wishlist though. Of course I have followed her fortunes in the Netherlands since the murder of Theo, and I largely second what you say.
ReplyDeleteAt one level, there is a necessity for criticisms of the kind that Ayaan articulates. If that is used or misused by the West in their fight against Islam, I suppose that cannot be helped. The feeling of Muslims that the West discriminates too is valid. I guess they all roll together.
Newsworm: thanks
ReplyDeleteAgree with your comments that it is important to have the critique rather than avoid it for fear of being misused. I just felt however that Ayaan may perhaps, just perhaps, be deliberately pandering to an interest group which was worrying.