Women in Islam: An Inside Islam recap





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Muslim women in India seek equal rights under personal law





Helping or Hurting Muslims?

On Tuesday night, I attended Ayaan Hirsi Ali‘s talk “Refuse to be Silenced: Feminism Today” as part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Distinguished Lecture Series. This series aims to generate constructive dialogue around controversial issues. I was hesitant to go to the lecture because I was aware of her story and her attitudes towards Islam; however, I decided to go and listen to hear what she has to say.

Ali is a Somali and Dutch writer, politician, and critic of Islam. She was born to a Muslim family in Somalia and in the early part of her life was a practicing Muslim. In 1992, she arrived in the Netherlands and was granted political asylum. She has written that the reason for her fleeing to the Netherlands was a forced marriage. However, it came to light in 2006 that she had given false information on her asylum application, so the exact events that led to her arrival in the Netherlands are unclear. She was voted into the Dutch parliament in 2003 and later resigned as a result of the asylum controversy. In 2002, Ali left Islam and became an atheist. Continue reading