Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2008, Page 46
the general discourse among Muslim intellectuals worldwide. In this discussion about the
essential universal message of the Quran is the hope for a better relationship among
differing factions in the religious landscape, both inside and outside of Muslim tradition.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born in 1969 in Somalia) published The Caged Virgin as De Maagdenkooi in
the Netherlands in 2004. My daughter, a teacher in Australia, heard Hirsi Ali speak in
Sydney at an authors‘ conference in 2007. Hirsi Ali was the only speaker with bodyguards.
My daughter sent me a copy of this book.
Hirsi Ali grew up Muslim in a traditional family in Somalia and Kenya, but as a young woman
ran away to avoid an arranged marriage to a distant relative in Canada. She made her way
to the Netherlands, applied for and was granted asylum, learned Dutch, and worked as an
interpreter. There she struggled to live and gain a Western education with a degree in
political science. She became a parliamentary representative, lately with the Liberal Party.
Along with filmmaker Theo van Gogh, she produced the highly controversial Submission:
Part 1, a 10-minute piece that features a female actor illustrating culturally mandated, cruel
treatment of Muslim women living under a fundamentalist or literal interpretation of the
Koran.i A radical Muslim murdered van Gogh shortly after the film‘s release in 2004. The
killer left a death threat against Hirsi Ali pinned with a knife that was stuck in van Gogh's
corpse. Hirsi Ali, who has continued her mission to bring enlightenment to fundamentalism
in Islam, has been under guard since.
In 2006, Hirsi Ali stepped down from the Dutch parliament to accept a position with the
American Enterprise Institute. She intends to help with research regarding the relationship
of the West with Islam and violence against women propagated by religious ideas. With The
Caged Virgin, the author argues that if one follows the ancient tribal values and morals
imbedded in Muslim scripture and tradition, then women will be forced to submit to harmful
physical and social behaviors. She argues that simplistic and antimodern interpretations of
passages from the Koran are more the norm than the exception throughout Muslim-
dominated nations. Men are also harmed because they are raised by naïve, if highly devoted
women with the same primitive values, which thus promotes a vicious cycle of rigid codes
contained in Sharia law. These old tribal codes tend to promote wife-beating and, in some
cultures, the mutilation of women through female circumcision and suturing the vagina to
protect virginity.
Hirsi Ali also argues that a virgin bride is so highly valued and anything less so roundly
condemned that Muslims will lie and cheat to sustain the illusion of virginity. If a Muslim
woman commits sexual misconduct with a man and is found out, the woman receives the
more severe punishment under a strict Sharia culture, according to Hirsi Ali. Much depends
on the cleric‘s interpretation of the crime, so the punishment can range from a whipping of
―one hundred lashes‖ [to both the man and the woman, according to the Koran Chapter 24,
verse 2] to stoning to death. The author states that many young women will find doctors to
resuture their vagina after they‘ve become sexually active before marriage, to convince
their husbands that they are truly virgin.
Her concern for Muslim women came to light after she settled in the Netherlands when she
worked as an interpreter for social servants who were trying to help dislocated and abused
Muslim women at the shelters. The experience had a profound effect on her personal
philosophy and lifestyle. She eventually proclaimed herself an atheist and a lesbian.
Because of her radical position, even moderate Muslims take issue with her harsh position
on the culture and the Prophet. Hirsi Ali says she is not trying to destroy the culture, as
some critics claim, but rather that she is expressing the need for modernist reform of the
entire culture. Her current project is the philosophical fantasy Short Cuts to Enlightenment,
about the Prophet Muhammad waking up in a modern New York library where he is exposed
to new and interesting ideas unavailable to him during his lifetime.
the general discourse among Muslim intellectuals worldwide. In this discussion about the
essential universal message of the Quran is the hope for a better relationship among
differing factions in the religious landscape, both inside and outside of Muslim tradition.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born in 1969 in Somalia) published The Caged Virgin as De Maagdenkooi in
the Netherlands in 2004. My daughter, a teacher in Australia, heard Hirsi Ali speak in
Sydney at an authors‘ conference in 2007. Hirsi Ali was the only speaker with bodyguards.
My daughter sent me a copy of this book.
Hirsi Ali grew up Muslim in a traditional family in Somalia and Kenya, but as a young woman
ran away to avoid an arranged marriage to a distant relative in Canada. She made her way
to the Netherlands, applied for and was granted asylum, learned Dutch, and worked as an
interpreter. There she struggled to live and gain a Western education with a degree in
political science. She became a parliamentary representative, lately with the Liberal Party.
Along with filmmaker Theo van Gogh, she produced the highly controversial Submission:
Part 1, a 10-minute piece that features a female actor illustrating culturally mandated, cruel
treatment of Muslim women living under a fundamentalist or literal interpretation of the
Koran.i A radical Muslim murdered van Gogh shortly after the film‘s release in 2004. The
killer left a death threat against Hirsi Ali pinned with a knife that was stuck in van Gogh's
corpse. Hirsi Ali, who has continued her mission to bring enlightenment to fundamentalism
in Islam, has been under guard since.
In 2006, Hirsi Ali stepped down from the Dutch parliament to accept a position with the
American Enterprise Institute. She intends to help with research regarding the relationship
of the West with Islam and violence against women propagated by religious ideas. With The
Caged Virgin, the author argues that if one follows the ancient tribal values and morals
imbedded in Muslim scripture and tradition, then women will be forced to submit to harmful
physical and social behaviors. She argues that simplistic and antimodern interpretations of
passages from the Koran are more the norm than the exception throughout Muslim-
dominated nations. Men are also harmed because they are raised by naïve, if highly devoted
women with the same primitive values, which thus promotes a vicious cycle of rigid codes
contained in Sharia law. These old tribal codes tend to promote wife-beating and, in some
cultures, the mutilation of women through female circumcision and suturing the vagina to
protect virginity.
Hirsi Ali also argues that a virgin bride is so highly valued and anything less so roundly
condemned that Muslims will lie and cheat to sustain the illusion of virginity. If a Muslim
woman commits sexual misconduct with a man and is found out, the woman receives the
more severe punishment under a strict Sharia culture, according to Hirsi Ali. Much depends
on the cleric‘s interpretation of the crime, so the punishment can range from a whipping of
―one hundred lashes‖ [to both the man and the woman, according to the Koran Chapter 24,
verse 2] to stoning to death. The author states that many young women will find doctors to
resuture their vagina after they‘ve become sexually active before marriage, to convince
their husbands that they are truly virgin.
Her concern for Muslim women came to light after she settled in the Netherlands when she
worked as an interpreter for social servants who were trying to help dislocated and abused
Muslim women at the shelters. The experience had a profound effect on her personal
philosophy and lifestyle. She eventually proclaimed herself an atheist and a lesbian.
Because of her radical position, even moderate Muslims take issue with her harsh position
on the culture and the Prophet. Hirsi Ali says she is not trying to destroy the culture, as
some critics claim, but rather that she is expressing the need for modernist reform of the
entire culture. Her current project is the philosophical fantasy Short Cuts to Enlightenment,
about the Prophet Muhammad waking up in a modern New York library where he is exposed
to new and interesting ideas unavailable to him during his lifetime.
