From the Jerusalem Post (HT: The Religion of Peace):

Admittedly, my fascination with the two authors, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Nonie Darwish, is connected with my profession: As a trainee clinical psychologist, I always hope to reach the bottom of people’s motives. Both women renounced their Islamic faith, Westernized and spoke openly in criticism of Muslims. But first, they made a far braver step: They started to question their culture. What were these highly dangerous, apostatical revolutions like to experience?

Hirsi Ali will be known to many readers as a Somali refugee who became a member of parliament in the Netherlands. Her accounts of her earlier life, in Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia lack nothing as an expose. But the radicalization of Muslim youths is a relatively new problem – and one far more complex than Westerners would like to believe.

Not until the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Somalia during Hirsi Ali’s childhood were strict dress codes and moral crusades common. From her own explanations, and examples of other strict adherents, we are shown that the burqa and hijab are not, in fact, symptoms of female oppression. Remarkably, they are shows of strength and superiority over others. Not only are female circumcisions more the realm of the female elders, but the severity of the operation symbolizes not suffering, but pride.

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