Bokelskere.no

This book has significantly altered my world view. I've been one of those western liberals, thinking that Islam is mostly about peace and that the violence of it stems only from the fanatics. I'm revising that stance now and am wondering how I could ever have been so blind.

Here in Norway, where I live, everyone is ever so willing to adapt to immigrants. We change our school traditions so that we do not offend people who have chosen to come here. It's ridiculous. It would never happen the other way around. This book confirms my view and is concerned at how (some) asylum seekers form enclaves and refuse to adapt to western society. I saw this particularly during the years I lived in Germany, with the Muslim women who could not speak a word of German. I too was an immigrant, but I learned German enough to get by in six months.

I am straying. Anyhow. This book is about the life of Ayaan. She is Somali and grew up in several countries. Already in the 1980's Somalia was being torn apart in internal fighting between clans. Her story is quite horrid. The subjugation of women in the name of Islam was everywhere, starting with the female gender mutiliation of children. Women's sexuality must be repressed at any cost, otherwise society would fall apart, Ayaan was told. When her father finally, after many years of absence, decide to marry her off to a man she had never met, she balked and ran away to Holland. The second part of the book is about Ayaan's emancipation from clan and religion.

This is a powerful book about a woman with more strength and courage than I thought imaginable. The conent has shaken me to my core. Highly recommended.