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Ayaan Hirsi Ali (pronunciation), born Ayaan Hirsi Magan 13 November 1969 in Mogadishu, Somalia, is a Dutch feminist and politician, daughter of Hirsi Magan Isse. She is a prominent, often controversial author, film maker and critic of Islam. She was a member of the Tweede Kamer (the Lower House of the States-General of the Netherlands) for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) from January 30 2003 until May 16, 2006.

Hirsi Ali has had to maintain a high level of security due to threats against her life for voicing views critical of certain aspects of Islam. For example, her film Submission, directed by Theo van Gogh (who himself was assassinated for his works), made her one of the targets of the Hofstad Network.

On May 15, 2006, officials of the Netherlands government cast doubt on Hirsi Ali's status as a Dutch national, due to concerns related to the fact that in order to obtain refugee status in the Netherlands she had provided false information. She later used the same false information when she applied for, and was granted, Dutch citizenship. The Dutch minister of immigration and integration, Rita Verdonk, moved to annul her citizenship, a move that was overridden by order of the Prime Minister. She released to the New York Times personal letters from her father and other family members that affirmed her story about fleeing a forced marriage.

On May 16, Hirsi Ali announced resignation from parliament and confirmed her previous statement that she would move to the United States to work at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Her prospective arrival in September 2006 was welcomed by Deputy US Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.

Biography

Youth

Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia into the Majeerteen sub-clan of the Darod clan. Her father, Hirsi Magan Isse, was a prominent member of the Somali Salvation Democratic Front and a leading figure in the civil war of Somalia. Although her father, who had studied in Italy and the United States, was opposed to female genital cutting, a Somali tradition, when Hirsi Ali was five years old her grandmother had the procedure performed on her while her father was abroad.

When she was six, her family left the country for Saudi Arabia, later moving to Ethiopia and then to Kenya, where the family obtained political asylum. In Kenya she attended the English-language Muslim Girls' Secondary School in Nairobi under sponsorship of the UNCHR, where, for a brief period she received guest lessons from a fundamentalist teacher called Aziza. Following the invasion by the secular nation of Iraq of the Islamic republic of Iran, she sympathised with Iran, and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and wore a hijab (full head-scarf) together with her school uniform. After secondary school she attended a secretarial course at the Valley College in Nairobi (near Yaya centre) for one year.

Pre-political career

Hirsi Ali arrived in the Netherlands in 1992. There is considerable lack of clarity about the events leading up to her arrival, because she has since admitted to making false statements in her application for asylum.

Hirsi Ali maintains that in 1992 her father arranged for her to marry a distant cousin living in Canada. Her family has denied this, however. It is not disputed that in 1992 she traveled from Kenya to visit family in Düsseldorf and Berlin, Germany. After a brief stay in Germany, she decided to go to the Netherlands instead of Canada.

Once in the Netherlands, she requested political asylum and received a residence permit. It is not known on what grounds she received political asylum. Legally, since her first stop was in Germany, she should have applied for asylum there. Also she had already resided in and had been granted refugee status in Kenya, a safe country. In the Netherlands, she gave a false name and date of birth to the Dutch immigration authorities. She is known in the West by her assumed name, Hirsi Ali, instead of her original name, Hirsi Magan. On the advice of her aunt, she told the immigration authorities that she had come straight from Somalia, instead of Kenya where she had been living for eleven years. In Somalia there was a serious famine at that time and a civil war leading to the Operation Restore Hope by the United States. Due to these circumstances, asylum seekers from Somalia were routinely granted asylum on humanitarian grounds. Hirsi Ali received a residence permit within three weeks of her arrival in the Netherlands.

After receiving asylum, she held various short-term jobs, ranging from cleaning to mail sorting. During this time she took courses in Dutch and a one-year course in Social Work. Following her initial studies, she studied political science at the University of Leiden until 2000. Between 1995 and 2001, she worked as an independent interpreter and translator, working primarily for the National Migration Service. While working for the NMS, she had access to inside knowledge of the workings of the Dutch immigration system. She was heavily critical of the way the Dutch system handled asylum seekers, favouring highly educated applicants over less educated ones .

Political career

After earning her masters in political science, Hirsi Ali became a fellow at the Wiardi Beckman Foundation, a scientific institute linked to the social-democratic PvdA, of which Leiden University Professor Ruud Koole was steward.

Inspired by the Atheist Manifesto (Atheistisch Manifest) of Leiden philosopher Herman Philipse, she renounced Islam and became an atheist. During this period she began to formulate her critique on Islamic culture, which she put to words in a book De Zoontjesfabriek ("The Son Factory"). After the publication of this book, she received the first threats on her life.

After some disagreements with the PvdA about the lack of security measures in november 2002, she asked Cisca Dresselhuys (the editor of the feminst magazine Opzij) for advice on her career. Dresselhuis in her turn introduced Hisi Ali to Neelie-Smit Kroes (current VVD Euro-commisioner) and Smit-Kroes introduced her to Gerrit Zalm, the parliamentary leader of VVD. Hirsi Ali agreed to switch to the VVD and stood for election to next parliament. She was an assistant of the VVD parliamentary party between November 2002 and January 2003. From January 2003 to june 2006 she worked as an MP for that party. She stepped down as an MP when minister Verdonk announced that the Dutch nationality of Hirsi Ali had to be considered as non-existing, bedause it was acquired with a false name and a false date of birth.

Because of her statements about the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a Trouw interview, a discrimination complaint was filed against Hirsi Ali on April 24, 2003. The Prosecutor's office decided not to prosecute her, because her critique did "not put forth any conclusions in respect to Muslims and their worth as a group is not denied.".

Hirsi Ali wrote the script for Submission , a short, low-budget film directed by Theo van Gogh. The film criticized the treatment of women in Islamic society. One woman was provocatively dressed in a semi-transparent burqa, under which texts from the Qur'an were projected on her skin. The texts referred to the subordinate role of women. Other women in the film showed signs of physical abuse. In addition to writing the script, Hirsi Ali also provided the voice-over. The release of the film sparked much controversy, as well as violent reaction, when radical Islamist Mohammed Bouyeri gunned down Van Gogh in an Amsterdam street on November 2, 2004. A letter pinned to Van Gogh's body with a knife was primarily a death threat to Hirsi Ali.

Earlier that year, the group "The Hague Connection" produced and distributed the rap song Hirsi Ali Dis on the Internet. The lyrics of this song included violent threats against Hirsi Ali's life. The rappers were prosecuted under Article 121 of the Dutch criminal code, because they hindered the execution of Hirsi Ali's tasks as politician. In 2005 the rappers were sentenced to community service and a suspended prison sentence .

After the incident, Hirsi Ali went into hiding in the Netherlands, and even spent some time in New York, a situation which lasted until January 18, 2005, when she returned to parliament. On February 18, 2005, she revealed the location of herself and her colleague Geert Wilders, who had also been in hiding. She demanded a normal, secured house, which she was granted one week later.

On November 16, 2005, Hirsi Ali reported being seriously threatened by the Imam Sachemic FAA. This Imam, who worked in a mosque in The Hague, announced on the Internet that Hirsi Ali would be "blown away by the wind of changing times" and that she could anticipate "the curse of Allah".

In January 2006, Hirsi Ali used her acceptance speech for the Reader's Digest "European of the Year" award to urge action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and to say that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must be taken at his word in wanting to organize a conference to investigate objective evidence of the Holocaust. "Before I came to Europe, I'd never heard of the Holocaust. That is the case with millions of people in the Middle East. Such a conference should be able to convince many people away from their denial of the genocide against the Jews."

She also said that "so-called Western values" of freedom and justice are universal; that Europe has done far better than most areas of the world at providing justice, because it has guaranteed the freedom of thought and debate that are required for critical self-examination; and that communities cannot reform themselves unless "scrupulous investigation of every former and current doctrine is possible."

In March 2006 a letter she co-signed entitled MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism with eleven other individuals (most notably Salman Rushdie) was published in response to violent and deadly protests in the Islamic world surrounding the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.

On April 27 a Dutch judge ruled that Hirsi Ali had to abandon her house - a highly secured secret address in the Netherlands. Her neighbours had complained that living next to her was an unacceptable security risk to them although the police had testified in court that it was one of the safest places in the country due to the many personnel they had assigned there.

Hirsi Ali is currently working on a successor to "Submission", which will probably deal with the position of homosexuals in Islam.

May 2006 events

In May 2006 the Dutch television program "Zembla" reported that Hirsi Ali had given false information about her real name, her age and the country she arrived from when originally applying for asylum in the Netherlands. The program also presented evidence that she was untruthful about the main reason for her asylum application being forced marriage.

Hirsi Ali admitted that she had lied about her full name, her date of birth, and the manner in which she came to the Netherlands. However several sources, including her first book The Son Factory, which was published in 2002 stated her real name and date of birth, and Hirsi Ali also publicly stated her real name and date of birth in a September 2002 interview published in the political magazine HP/De Tijd.. So these details were considered by many to be public knowledge. Furthermore, Hirsi Ali has asserted that she had made full disclosure of the matter to VVD officials when she was first invited to run for parliament in 2002.

Media speculation arose that she could lose her Dutch citizenship because of this 'identity fraud', rendering her ineligible for parliament. In a first reaction Minister Rita Verdonk said she would not look into the matter, but after Member of Parliament Hilbrand Nawijn officially asked her for her position, she declared that she would investigate Hirsi Ali's naturalisation process. This investigation took three days. The findings were that Hirsi Ali never received Dutch citizenship after all, because she lied about her name and date of birth. Hirsi Ali had stated that she was Ayaan Hirsi Ali, born in 1967, but she is actually Ayaan Hirsi Magan, born in 1969. Therefore the Dutch government's position is that Hirsi Ali's Dutch citizenship is invalid and declared null and void.

On May 15, 2006, after the broadcast of the "Zembla" documentary, news stories erupted saying that Hirsi Ali is likely to move to the United States in September 2006. There she is expected to work on her book Shortcut to Enlightenment and work for the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute.

On May 16, Hirsi Ali resigned from Parliament after admitting to lying on her asylum application. On that day she gave a press conference in which she restated that although she felt it was wrong to be granted asylum under false pretences, the facts had been publicly known since 2002 when they were reported in the media and in one of her publications. In the press conference she also restated that she spoke the truth about the reason for asking asylum which was the threat of forced marriage despite the claim to the contrary in the Zembla program by some of her relatives. The reason, she stated for resigning immediately were not the continuous threats, making her job as a parliamentarian "difficult" but "not impossible" but the news that the Minister would strip her of her Dutch citizenship.

After a long and emotional debate in the Dutch Parliament all major parties supported a motion, requesting the Minister to explore the possibilities of special circumstances in Hirsi Ali's case. Although Verdonk remains convinced that jurisprudence does not leave her any room to consider such circumstances, she decided to accept the motion. During the debate she astonished MPs by claiming that Hirsi Ali still has Dutch citizenship during the period of reexamination. Apparently the decision she made public, wasn't a decision after all, but merely a report of the current position of the Dutch government. Hirsi Ali still has six weeks to react to this before any final decision about her citizenship is taken. Verdonk was heavily criticized for not acting more prudently in a case that has so many political implications.

Apart from a Dutch passport, Hirsi Ali does still have a Dutch residency permit (similar to a Permanent Resident Card) on the grounds that she is a political refugee. According to the Minister, this permit cannot be taken away from her since it was granted more than 12 years ago, in 1992.

In a reaction to the announced move, former VVD minister Hans Wiegel stated that her departure "would not be a loss to the VVD and not be a loss to the Tweede Kamer". Wiegel said that Hirsi Ali was a brave woman, but that her opinions were polarizing. Former parliamentary leader of the VVD, Jozias van Aartsen, was more positive about Hirsi Ali, saying that it is "painful for Dutch society and politics that she is leaving the Tweede Kamer". Another VVD MP, Bibi de Vries, claimed that if something were to happen to Hirsi Ali, some people in her party would have "blood on their hands."

Christopher DeMuth (President of the AEI) has confirmed in a letter that recent events in the Netherlands will not affect the appointment. On May 16 he stated that he was still looking forward to "welcoming her to AEI, and to America."

United States Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick has later stated that "we recognise that she is a very courageous and impressive woman and she is welcome in the US."

On May 23 2006 Ayaan Hirsi made available to the The New York Times some letters she believes provide insights into her 1992 asylum application. In one letter, her sister warned her that the entire extended family was searching for her (after fleeing to the Netherlands) and in another letter her father denounced her.

Political views

Hirsi Ali is a member of the VVD, a Dutch political party that combines right wing views on foreign policy, the economy, crime and immigration with a liberal stance on drugs and abortion. She is a great admirer of one of the party's ideological leaders Frits Bolkestein (former Euro-commisioner). To people critical of her change from the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) to the VVD she has answered that she will remain faithfull to the VVD in the years to come. Her personal views are for the most part inspired by her change from a Muslim to an atheist. Hirsi Ali is very critical of Islam, and especially of the prophet Muhammad and the position of women in Islam.

Islam

Hirsi Ali is very critical of the position of women in patriarchal Islamic societies and the punishments demanded by Islamic scholars for homosexuality and adultery.

Muhammad

Her criticism of the Islamic prophet Muhammad mainly concerns his moral stature. In January 2003 she told the Dutch paper Trouw, "Muhammad is, seen by our Western standards, a pervert". She referred particularly to the marriage between Muhammad, who was 52 years old, and Aisha, who was nine years old, according to some interpretations of hadith (see Aisha – young marriage age controversy). She also has stated her opinions on the personality of the prohet Muhammad:In the Dutch newspaper Trouw Hirsi Ali is interviewed on the ten commandmentments. In the second paragraph she is asked about Muhammad. She answers: "Vind je het vreemd dat Saddam Hoessein er is? Mohammed is zijn voorbeeld. Mohammed is een voorbeeld voor alle moslimmannen. Vind je het vreemd dat zoveel moslimmannen gewelddadig zijn? " "Translation: Do you think it strange that there is a Saddam Hoessein ? Muhammad is his example. Muhammad is an example for all moslim men. Do you think it strange that so many moslim men are violent ?" In an interview with the Danish magazine Sappho she explains the parallels between the personality of Yasser Arafat and that of Muhammad.

Circumcision

Hirsi Ali is an opponent of the practice of circumcision for both men and women. Female circumcision is a part of certain Muslim communities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, where she lived. Female circumcision is not considered part of Islamic practice anywhere outside of Africa and is performed by many non-Muslim Africans .

Freedom of speech

Hirsi Ali is a proponent of free speech. In a 2006 lecture in Berlin, she defended the right to offend, following the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. She condemned the journalists of those papers and TV channels that did not show their readers the cartoons as being "mediocre of mind" and of trying to hide behind those "noble-sounding terms such as 'responsibility' and 'sensitivity'." She praised publishers all over Europe for showing the cartoons and not being afraid of what she labeled the intolerance of many Muslims worldwide. "I do not seek to offend religious sentiment, but I will not submit to tyranny. Demanding that people who do not accept Muhammad’s teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission."

Freedom of assembly

Hirsi Ali supported the move by the Dutch courts to abrogate the party subsidy to a conservative Christian political party, the Political Reformed Party (SGP), which does not grant full membership rights to women. She stated that "any political party discriminating against women or homosexuals should be deprived of funding."

Hirsi Ali has also stated that she wants the Belgian authorities to ban the Vlaams Belang party, claiming that "it hardly differs from the Hofstad Group. Though the VB members have not committed any violent crimes yet, they are just postponing them and waiting until they have an absolute majority. On many issues they have exactly the same opinions as the Muslim extremists: on the position of women, on the suppression of gays, on abortion. This way of thinking will lead straight to genocide." The Hofstad Group is a Dutch Islamist terrorist organization.

Vlaams Belang party leader Frank Vanhecke responded by writing an open letter to Hirsi Ali, stating that she is "closer to the Vlaams Belang with her viewpoints than to the Flemish Liberals." He also rejected the likeness with the Hofstad Group, saying that the Vlaams Belang "has never and nowhere called for violence":

"e do not threaten politicians with death or plan murder attempts. Like you and Geert Wilders, we only call for common sense and for a different immigration policy."

The Vlaams Belang also reacted to the retirement of Hirsi Ali from Dutch politics, saying that the party has "respect for the way she has conducted and promoted the debate in the Netherlands with respect to Islam, female oppression and failed integration."

On aid to the developing countries:

The Netherlands has in the past always been one of the countries that generously aided developing countries. Hirsi Ali as spokesperson of the VVD has vehemently opposed this policy.

On minorities

In the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant of 8 april 2006 she has proposed the special screening of any moslim applying for any job on possible links with terrorist groups

On population control

In view of the growing moslim population in The Netherlands (which she called frightening) Ayaan Hirsi Ali proposed that the government should use population control measures especially aimed at families of this background. (pt. 7)

On immigration

In 2003 Hirsi Magan worked together with right-wing VVD parlementarian Geert Wilders for several months and put questions to the government on immigration policy (questions on the occasion of the UNDP Arab Human Development Report, october 20, 2003). These questions were sent on 22 oktober 2003 id. nr. 2030401780 to minister De Hoop Scheffer (foreign affairs) and minister Van Ardenne-van der Hoeven (foreign aid). Question: "Wilt u dit rapport ruim vòòr de behandeling van de begroting Buitenlandse Zaken 2004 naar de Kamer geleiden en voorzien van een kabinetsstandpunt over de belangrijkste conclusies? Wilt u daarbij ook aandacht besteden aan de gevolgen voor het Nederlandse beleid wat betreft ()het inperken van de migratie uit de Arabische wereld naar Europa c.q. Nederland ?" Translation: "Will you please pay attention to the consequences for Dutch policy concerning the limitation of immigration from the Arab world to Europe c.q. The Netherlands ?" She has defended the conservative minister Rita Verdonk's policies on immigration. When public opinion in The Netherlands was aroused by the expulsion of a 17 year old school girl (Taïda Pasic) to Joego-Slavia a few months before her final exams, she was irritated by so much attention for a single case:

Awards

• In January 2004, Hirsi Ali was awarded the Prize of Liberty by Nova Civitas, a classical liberal think tank in the Low Countries.

• On November 20, 2004 Ayaan Hirsi Ali was awarded the Freedom Prize of Denmark's Liberal Party, which was the largest party and part of the government at the time, "for her work to further freedom of speech and the rights of women". Due to threats from Islamic fundamentalists she was not at the time able to receive it personally; however a year later, November 17, 2005, she travelled to Denmark to thank Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the then-prime minister and leader of Denmark's Liberal Party, for the prize.

• On February 25, 2005 she was given the Harriet Freezerring by Cisca Dresselhuys, editor of the feminist magazine Opzij, "for her work for the emancipation of Islamic women".

• According to the American Time Magazine of April 18, 2005 she was amongst the 100 Most Influential Persons of the World. The Time 100 She was put in the category "Leaders & Revolutionaries" .

• In June 2005, Hirsi Ali was awarded by the Norwegian Political Think Tank, Human Rights Service (HRS) , with the annual Prize, This Year's European Bellwether. According to HRS, Hirsi Ali is “beyond a doubt, the leading European politician in the field of integration. (She is) a master at the art of mediating the most difficult issues with insurmountable courage, wisdom, reflectiveness, and clarity * On August 29, 2005, Hirsi Ali was awarded the annual Democracy Prize of the Liberal Party of Sweden "for her courageous work for democracy, human rights and women's rights."

• Hirsi Ali was voted European of the Year for 2006 by the European editors of Reader's Digest magazine. At a ceremony in The Hague on January 23, Hirsi Ali accepted the Reader's Digest award from EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes.

• On May 4, 2006, Hirsi Ali accepted the Moral Courage Award from the American Jewish Committee.

• The Norwegian member of parliament Christian Tybring-Gjedde has nominated Hirsi Ali as candidate for Nobel Peace Prize of 2006.

Trivia

• Her first name, Ayaan, means "lucky person" or "luck" in the Somali language.

• Hirsi Ali speaks six languages: English, Somali, Arabic, Swahili, Amharic and Dutch.

Bibliography

• De Zoontjesfabriek over vrouwen, Islam en integratie ("The Son Factory - About Women, Islam and Integration") is a collection of essays and lectures that she held before 2002. It also contains an extended interview originally published in Opzij, a feminist magazine. The book specifically focuses on the position of Moslems in the Netherlands.
• The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam is a translation of the Dutch book De Maagdenkooi. It is a collection of Hirsi Ali's essays and lectures from the period 2003–2004, combined with her personal experiences as a translator working for the NMS. The book specifically focuses on the position of women in Islam.

References

1. Ayaan Hirsi Ali PEN American Center
2. Battling the racists, Expatica, May 12, 2006
3. "America to welcome Hirsi Ali with open arms", Expatica, 18 May 2006; also "Somali-Born Lawmaker Leaving Netherlands", Washington Post, 16 May 2006.
4. ^ Danger woman The Guardian, May 17, 2005
5. Ayaan Hirsi Ali niet vervolgd, Volkskrant, April 24, 2003
6. Submission, on Google Video 2005-04-29
7. Werkstraf voor 'Hirsi Ali-rappers', nu.nl, 27 January 2005
8. Geen Iraanse atoombom toelaten, De Standaard. (Dutch)
9. Ayaan Hirsi Ali betreurt zelfcensuur Europa, De Standaard. (Dutch)
10. The Caged Virgin - Holland's shameful treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Christopher Hitchens, May 8, 2006
11. Zembla - De heilige Ayaan, May 11 2006 (Includes streaming video)
12. Liberals don't care Hirsi Ali lied to get asylum in 1992, expatica.com, May 12 2006
13. Hirsi Ali verlässt die Niederlande (Hirsi Ali leaves the Netherlands - German language article), Der Spiegel, May 15 2006
14. Hirsi Ali will die Niederlande verlassen (Hirsi Ali wants to leave the Netherlands - German language article) by Ludger Kamierczak, Tagesschau, May 15 2006
15. http://news.google.com/news?ned=nl_nl&ncl=http://www.nos.nl/nos/artikelen/2006/05/art000001C6765328EBF3B3.html&hl=nl
16. http://www.volkskrant.nl/den_haag/article316789.ece/Hirsi_Ali_per_1%A0september_naar_Washington
17. Full text press conference in English May 16 2006 Link
18. http://www.elsevier.nl/nieuws/politiek/nieuwsbericht/asp/artnr/98711/index.html
19. http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/42398021/Van_Aartsen:_Vertrek_pijnlijk_voor_Nederland.html
20. http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=19&story_id=30119&name=America+to+welcome+Hirsi+Ali+with+open+arms
21. Somali in The Hague Faces a More Personal Attack , Marlise Simons, New York Times, May 23 2006
22. Brieven bevestigen risico's Hirsi Ali May 30 www.nu.nl Online article (Dutch language)
23. "Swedish Imam says Islam forbids female circumcision", Reuters AlertNet, 10 November 2003
24. http://www.welt.de/z/plog/blog.php/the_free_west/the_free_wests_weblog/2006/02/10/the_right_to_offend – transcript of a speech given in Berlin on February 9, 2006
25. Paul Belien "What Can This 'European of the Year' Teach Us?" Brussels Journal, 5 January 2006
26. Gazet van Antwerpen (1 February 2006)
27. http://www.vlaamsbelang.org/index.php?p=1&id=226
28. http://www.vlaamsbelang.org/index.php?p=0&id=1889
29. The 2005 TIME 100: Leaders & Revolutionaries
30. http://www.folkpartiet.se/templates/ListPage____22087.aspx
31. RD European of the Year 2006 Reader's Digest, 2006
32. Moral Courage Award to Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Shoaib Choudhury American Jewish Committee, May 4, 2006

External links

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali Official Website Ayaan Hirsi Ali's official website
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali Website -- Weblog Ayaan Hirsi Ali's related information
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali affairs - Weblog Ayaan Hirsi Ali weblog (English language version)

Interviews

• Interview with Der Spiegel May 14, 2005
• Interview on the Brian Lehrer Show May 05, 2006 WNYC
• Video Interview with Norway's NRK television Feb, 2006
• Interview with Danish DR1 Television Nov 16, 2005 (Danish intro, interview in English)
• Interview with The Guardian May 17, 2005
• Interview with NPR May 5, 2005
• Interview with NPR May 4, 2006 (text includes preface from English translation of "The Caged Virgin")
• Interview with CBS News March 13, 2005
• Interview with the BBC - 23 December 2003
• Interview with the BBC - 24 January 2006
• interview with Dutch TV, 29 August 2004 (in Dutch).
• Video interview with Hirsi Ali on perspectives for the integration of mainstream islam into liberal societies
• Video interview with Hirsi Ali on her political struggle and her views on extremism within islam

Articles

• Khaled Shawkat, "Dutch MP Creates Seismic Waves by Insulting Prophet Muhammad", Islam Online, 27 January 2006.
• "Ayaan Hirsi Ali betreurt zelfcensuur Europa" , De Standaard, January 24, 2006 (in Dutch).
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali, "Islam and Europe's Identity Deficit", Brown Journal of World Affairs,
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali, "Let's Talk About How To Close The Identity Gap", International Herald Tribune, 23 August 2005 (excerpted from Brown Journal of World Affairs, August 2006)
• Profile: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, BBC News, May 16, 2006.
• Khaled Diab, "Out but not down", Al-Ahram Weekly, 25 May, 2006
• Profile: Ayaan Hirsi Ali The Blanket.

• Dutch politicians
• Dutch atheists
• Feminists
• Former Muslims
• Freedom of expression
• Islam and controversy
• Polyglots
• Somali people
• VVD
• Women's rights in religious movements
• American Enterprise Institute
• 1969 births
• Living people
• People who use their mother's surname