THE CAGED VIRGIN

AYAAN HIRSI ALI

 A Muslim Woman’s Cry for Reason

 ISBN-12:978-1-4165-2623-0,  ISBN-10:1-4165-2623-4

First published in Britain by The Free Press, 2006

Pocket Books, 2007, an imprint of Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, A CBS COMPANY

This book comes with a strong recommendation by Salman Rushdie who says it is an immensely important and challenging book which “tells the truth – the unvarnished, uncomfortable truth”.

AYAAN HIRSI ALI was born in Somali, was raised Muslim and spent her childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia. In 1992, Hirsi Ali went to the Netherlands as a refugee escaping a forced marriage to a distant cousin she had never met. She learned Dutch and worked as an interpreter in abortion clinics and shelters for battered women. After earning her college degree in political science, she worked for the Labour Party. She denounced Islam after the September 11^th terrorist attacks and now works as a Dutch parliamentarian, fighting for the rights of Muslim women in Europe, the enlightenment of Islam, and security in the West.

MEB - Editor’s comment: When reading this book, it behoves us to keep an open mind. It tells the truth as Ayaan Hirsi Ali experienced it in her life. There are other women, some known personally to me, who have had a very different experience of the same kind of circumstances, and have taken quite a different path in consequence. As people involved in interreligious dialogue, we do need to be informed of every side and every kind of experience of this very difficult question.