On the recordMay 9, 2014
I am going to read the background of an incredible woman. We have different religious views because I am a Christian and she is apparently an atheist at this time, but what an extraordinary woman: Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She is a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken defender of women's rights in Islamic societies, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. She escaped an arranged marriage by immigrating to the Netherlands in 1992 and served as a member of the Dutch parliament from 2003 to 2006. In parliament, she worked on furthering the integration of non-Western immigrants into Dutch society and defending the rights of women in Dutch Muslim society. In 2004, together with director Theo van Gogh, she made ``Submission,'' a film about the oppression of women in conservative Islamic cultures. The airing of the film on Dutch television resulted in the assassination of Mr. Van Gogh by an Islamic extremist. At AEI, Ms. Hirsi Ali researches the relationship between the West and Islam, women's rights in Islam, violence against women propagated by religious and cultural arguments, and Islam in Europe. Her background, as mentioned, she was a member of the parliament in the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, the Netherlands, 2003 to 2006. She was a researcher at the Wiardi Beckman Foundation in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2001 to 2002.…
