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To mark the launch of our latest programme - TrustLaw Women - we have asked women who their all-time heroine is and why. Here is the winning entry and a chance to tell us who your heroine is
To mark the launch of our latest programme - TrustLaw Women - we have asked women who their all-time heroine is and why. Here is the winning entry and a chance to tell us who your heroine is (by commenting at the bottom of this blog post).
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali-Dutch feminist and writer
By Danielle Liffman, winner of the TrustLaw contest
“She has been an inspiring heroine to me since I picked up her first novel, “Infidel”. I am amazed by her ability to disregard the limitations cast on her by others and fight for her beliefs.
Ali was born in Somalia to a prominent member of a revolutionary opposition party. At the age of five, she underwent female circumcision at the insistence of her grandmother – a painful and dangerous procedure intended to reduce women’s libido and thereby help them resist sexual acts outside of marriage.
She later moved to Kenya where she and her family adopted a rigorous interpretation of Islam that promoted the suppression of women’s rights. Ali continued to suffer a life of abuse at the hand of not only the male members of her family, but also her mother and grandmother.
In her early twenties, her father attempted to force Ali to marry a distant cousin in Canada. Ali refused to submit to a man, but knew if she stayed in Somalia she could be beaten or killed for dishonouring her father.
Instead of switching planes in Germany, she escaped and found her way to the Netherlands where she sought political asylum. There she worked her way up from cleaning hotels to earning a master’s degree in political science.
Despite her upbringing in a conservative Muslim household, Ali became critical of interpretations of the Qur’an that allow the abuse of women.
She became involved politically and was elected to the Dutch Parliament in 2002. During her time in Parliament, she made a number of controversial statements about her beliefs towards Islam and its abuse of women.
She also worked on a film, Submission, which portrayed Muslim women suffering abuse. Shortly after its release, her co-producer was murdered and Ali was forced to go into hiding due to threats on her life.
Since then, she has published several novels detailing her story. She has received numerous awards for her work to further freedom of speech and the rights of women.
Ali also founded the AHA foundation, a non-profit humanitarian organization created to protect females in the U.S. against denial of education, genital cutting, forced marriage, honour violence or killings, suppression of information, and other crimes against women custom in radical Islam.
Ali is a heroine not just for fighting for her own asylum from abuse, but also for her endless struggle to protect others. Despite the risks to her own life, she continues to speak out towards reforming Islamic traditions that oppress women and demands equal treatment for everyone.
As a woman, she inspires me to never accept a situation in which I face inequality. Ali’s values empower women to fight not only for equal rights in religion, but in the work force, political landscape, and the classroom. She has inspired me to speak up for what I believe in, even if it goes against the tradition of society, because a woman’s worth is limited only by how much she values herself.”
Who is your “all time heroine”? Please share with us here by using the comments form.
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