Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born American activist, writer and politician. She is known for her views critical of female genital mutilation and Islam, and supportive of women's rights and atheism. She collaborated on a short movie with Theo van Gogh, entitled Submission. Critical of Islam, it provoked controversy, and death threats were made against each of the two. Van Gogh was assassinated later that year by a Dutch Muslim.
Hirsi Ali is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse. She and her family left Somalia in 1977 for Saudi Arabia, then Ethiopia, settling in Kenya. In 1992 Ali sought and obtained political asylum in the Netherlands; her misleading application was later the subject of a political controversy. Following graduate work, she published articles on her political views and spoke in support of Muslim women, becoming an atheist. In 2003 she was elected a member of the House of Representatives, representing the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. A political crisis related to the validity of her Dutch citizenship led to her resignation from the parliament, and indirectly to the fall of the second Balkenende cabinet in 2006.
Hirsi Ali is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse. She and her family left Somalia in 1977 for Saudi Arabia, then Ethiopia, settling in Kenya. In 1992 Ali sought and obtained political asylum in the Netherlands; her misleading application was later the subject of a political controversy. Following graduate work, she published articles on her political views and spoke in support of Muslim women, becoming an atheist. In 2003 she was elected a member of the House of Representatives, representing the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. A political crisis related to the validity of her Dutch citizenship led to her resignation from the parliament, and indirectly to the fall of the second Balkenende cabinet in 2006.
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