Had first read her book 'Infidel' and was very impressed. Then read her autobiography 'Nomad' and was less so. The production of the movie 'Submission' and the subsequent murder of the director Theo Van Goh made me want to know her better.
What is amazing about her is her travel from a barely-literate, ultra orthodox muslim woman to a political and religious satirist of international fame. So much so that she was rated oneof Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the world in 2005.
Having grown with very orthodox religious views in Mogadishu/Saudi Arabia and Nigeria - her life takes a turn when she escapes her arranged marriage and illegally immigrates to the Netherlands. There she absorbs and internalizes the Dutch values of freedom of thought, respect for women and religious tolerance in the most simple terms and re-evaluates her stand towards religion in general and Islam in particular.
What is amazing is her decision to take up Political science as a major, graduate from Leiden university and then become a member of the Dutch parliament ..All individual, daring achievements from a woman who's live was completely controlled by others for the first 22 years of her life!
While her fight against FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) is admirable and her bravery in questioning most of the restrictive practices that enslaves women in her native culture is admirable - what is not acceptable for me - is her tendency to see everything that is western as right and everything that is native to her as wrong.
Christianity and Islam and (Hinduism for that matter) they all have their hits and misses. Most importantly they only make sense if read in the context of their times and geo-political realities of that time. If taken out of context they all are nothing but rants. So to idolize one religion and demonize another is just not acceptable.
She seems to have a failure similar to Arundhati Roy - a tendency to get hyper, to get carried away, to stereotype that which has hurt you , your society - and try to fight the symptom than examine and eradicate the cause. ( Read 'The algebra of infinite justice' - by Arundhati Roy and you will know what I mean)
Why is her culture, her society 'repressive' - does she think the west had nothing to do with it? Also does she realise that just a century back, the same Christianity that has evolved so much, did treat it's women as property and England did not give voting rights to women until 1918? There was a time when women could be whipped in England legally by their husbands if he judged it right to do so..So yes - her society much like the one that I was born in to is taking some more time to evolve - and with good reason. It is the western attitude of keeping the occupied natives' intelligentsia corrupt and weak that played a large part in keeping these societies primitive.
And I would not blame the western world either. They did what they had to - To survive and to win. So the way to fight this historical baggage is to treat the cause and educate and support. Not moralize and condemn.
I don't see how you can truly appreciate a foreign culture, if you have not even made the attempt to understand and examine your own!
If a moslem woman chooses to wear a burqua, to condemn and ridicule it is as vile as forcing a woman to wear it.
'Choice' is what defines freedom not what you or I think is 'Right'. The way forward is to produce avenues for children, the future- to recognize , demand and create those choices. Not demonizing a whole culture that defines who they are.
What is amazing about her is her travel from a barely-literate, ultra orthodox muslim woman to a political and religious satirist of international fame. So much so that she was rated oneof Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the world in 2005.
Having grown with very orthodox religious views in Mogadishu/Saudi Arabia and Nigeria - her life takes a turn when she escapes her arranged marriage and illegally immigrates to the Netherlands. There she absorbs and internalizes the Dutch values of freedom of thought, respect for women and religious tolerance in the most simple terms and re-evaluates her stand towards religion in general and Islam in particular.
What is amazing is her decision to take up Political science as a major, graduate from Leiden university and then become a member of the Dutch parliament ..All individual, daring achievements from a woman who's live was completely controlled by others for the first 22 years of her life!
While her fight against FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) is admirable and her bravery in questioning most of the restrictive practices that enslaves women in her native culture is admirable - what is not acceptable for me - is her tendency to see everything that is western as right and everything that is native to her as wrong.
Christianity and Islam and (Hinduism for that matter) they all have their hits and misses. Most importantly they only make sense if read in the context of their times and geo-political realities of that time. If taken out of context they all are nothing but rants. So to idolize one religion and demonize another is just not acceptable.
She seems to have a failure similar to Arundhati Roy - a tendency to get hyper, to get carried away, to stereotype that which has hurt you , your society - and try to fight the symptom than examine and eradicate the cause. ( Read 'The algebra of infinite justice' - by Arundhati Roy and you will know what I mean)
Why is her culture, her society 'repressive' - does she think the west had nothing to do with it? Also does she realise that just a century back, the same Christianity that has evolved so much, did treat it's women as property and England did not give voting rights to women until 1918? There was a time when women could be whipped in England legally by their husbands if he judged it right to do so..So yes - her society much like the one that I was born in to is taking some more time to evolve - and with good reason. It is the western attitude of keeping the occupied natives' intelligentsia corrupt and weak that played a large part in keeping these societies primitive.
And I would not blame the western world either. They did what they had to - To survive and to win. So the way to fight this historical baggage is to treat the cause and educate and support. Not moralize and condemn.
I don't see how you can truly appreciate a foreign culture, if you have not even made the attempt to understand and examine your own!
If a moslem woman chooses to wear a burqua, to condemn and ridicule it is as vile as forcing a woman to wear it.
'Choice' is what defines freedom not what you or I think is 'Right'. The way forward is to produce avenues for children, the future- to recognize , demand and create those choices. Not demonizing a whole culture that defines who they are.
