Ayaan+Hirsi+Ali+and+Feminism

= = = Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Feminism =

**//We must reclaim and retake feminism from our fellow idiotic women. - Ayaan Hirsi Ali*//**

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a controversial critic of Islam’s treatment of women, will deliver the Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture at ALA Midwinter 2015 in Chicago.

The //New York Times// has called Hirsi Ali “a campaigner for women’s rights and a fierce critic of Islam.” The //Los Angeles Times// described her as “a feminist and outspoken critic of Islam,” and the //Boston Globe// called Hirsi Ali “a prominent advocate for women’s rights and an outspoken critic of Islam.”

Yet Hirsi Ali has been strongly criticized criticized by some Muslim feminists, including Linda Sarsour, who told //Al Jazeera America// “The problem we have with Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not that we invalidate her own experience, but she equates violence against women to Islam,” adding that “her story does not represent Islam or all Muslim women.” //FAIR//’s Rania Khalek calls Hirsi Ali an Islamophobe who is “adored” by the right-wing and Fox News.

Here is a quick reading list of open-access sources to help prepare for Hirsi Ali’s talk: > Lets not throw away feminism. It’s like throwing away the Civil Rights movement and its history. It’s like throwing away the history of the Apartheid movement, or the anti-slavery movement. Feminism is not the monster. Some women are. We can reclaim it. We have to make it serious and you’re on the right path by standing up and giving them opposition. I am a feminist. I am a grateful and vicious feminist. I’ll tell you what we need to fight against – the real war on women. > There can only be one answer to this hideous act of jihad against the staff of Charlie Hebdo. It is the obligation of the Western media and Western leaders, religious and lay, to protect the most basic rights of freedom of expression, whether in satire on any other form. The West must not appease, it must not be silenced. We must send a united message to the terrorists: Your violence cannot destroy our soul. > Facing growing criticism, Brandeis University said Tuesday that it had reversed course and would not award an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a campaigner for women’s rights and a fierce critic of Islam, who has called the religion “a destructive, nihilistic cult of death.” > Linda Sarsour, civic engagement coordinator for the National Network for Arab American Communities and a self-described progressive women’s rights activist who said she is pro-choice, told Al Jazeera that even though some of the film’s featured activists may be “well-intentioned,” the documentary equates violence against women with Islam. “We don’t need Islamophobes to talk to us and tell the stories of oppressed and abused Muslim women," she said. "It’s just disingenuous." > It would be good to revive true feminism. And that feminism takes all women. It doesn’t matter what race, what colour. What connects us is our human individuality. And feminism, if we mean it seriously, it has to be about the individual. We have to let go of groups. If you listen to multiculturalists, you read their work, it’s always about groups, communities. And, all of these groups, these entities, that’s abstract. But the human body is physical. You don’t cut the genitals of an abstract, you cut the genitals of an individual human being. > It’s also absurd to suggest that Hirsi Ali is an advocate for women’s rights, given that she pushes the narrative that misogyny and violence are inherent to Islam. > Hirsi Ali’s reputation as a feminist works as a kind of progressive redemption – the “silver lining” balancing her other reputation as a bigot. But in the eyes of many Muslim women, who are constantly battling the double-edged sword of Islamophobia and misogyny, Hirsi Ali’s intervention into the cause of women’s rights, and the public approbation of said intervention, renders her even more dangerous … The concern is not over Hirsi Ali’s chosen subject matter – hardly anyone is claiming that misogyny is absent in Muslim majority countries – but how an American audience will interpret what she is saying and apply it to the already pernicious debate around Muslims in the United States. Considering the tendency for right-wing Islamophobes to co-opt “women’s rights” to justify their anti-Muslim bigotry, as well as Hirsi Ali’s own history of promulgating such bigotry, the concern is that her intervention into the issue of gender equality in Muslim societies will strengthen racism rather than weaken sexism. > I think that we are at war with Islam. And there’s no middle ground in wars. Islam can be defeated in many ways. For starters, you stop the spread of the ideology itself; at present, there are native Westerners converting to Islam, and they’re the most fanatical sometimes. There is infiltration of Islam in the schools and universities of the West. You stop that. You stop the symbol burning and the effigy burning, and you look them in the eye and flex your muscles and you say, “This is a warning. We won’t accept this anymore.” There comes a moment when you crush your enemy.
 * ** Ayaan Hirsi Ali, [|Remarks at the Independent Women’s Forum 2014 Barbara K. Olsen Women of Valor Dinner], November 19, 2014 **
 * ** Ayaan Hirsi Ali, [|How to Answer the Paris Terror Attack], //Wall Street Journal//, January 7, 2015 **
 * ** Richard Perez-Pena & Tanzina Vega, [|Brandeis Cancels Plan to Give Honorary Degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Critic of Islam], New York Times, April 8, 2014 **
 * ** Lisa De Bode, [|Ayaan Hirsi Ali film ignites row over Islam, censorship], //Al Jazeera America//, April 14, 2014 **
 * ** Ruby Hamad Interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali: [|Women’s safety is the top priority], //DailyLife//, April 3, 2013 **
 * ** Rania Khalek, [|Gender Focus: Why Muslim Feminists Aren’t Celebrating Hirsi Ali], //FAIR//, June 1, 2014 **
 * ** Rochelle Terman, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the Double-Bind of Muslim Women’s Rights, //[|The Feminist Wire]//, May 12, 2014 **
 * ** Rogier van Bakel interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, [|The Trouble Is the West], //Reason//, November 2007 **

//*[|Remarks at the Independent Women’s Forum 2014 Barbara K. Olsen Women of Valor Dinner], November 19, 2014//