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HIRSI ALI GETS TO WORK
Monday, August 28, 2006


HIRSI ALI GETS TO WORK

At AEI. Here is one of her first essays, which outlines the crucial role women have to play in reforming Muslim communities. Key excerpt:

European policy-makers have not yet understood the huge potential of liberating Muslim women. They are squandering the single best opportunity they have to make Muslim integration a success within one generation. Morally, governments need to eradicate violence against women in Europe. This would make clear to fundamentalists that Europeans take their constitutions seriously. Now, most abusers simply think that Western rhetoric about the equality of men and women is cowardly and hypocritical, since Western governments tolerate the abuse of millions of Muslim women when they're told it's in the name of freedom of religion.
I think she hits an important point and, more importantly, a pragmatic solution that can help integrate Muslim communities into European societies. And yes, Hirsi Ali herself is a living example that liberated Muslim women can actually make a difference in moving the often difficult lives of unintegrated and isolated Muslims forward. The shame of course is that her own liberation was cut short and that the platform she had been given as a member of Dutch parliament was essentially taken away from her. She was driven out of Europe and that bitterness is echoed in the conclusion of her argument:
What a waste that Europe is blind to this golden opportunity that lies at its feet.
Thankfully, one noted American think tank kept its eyes open.

NOTE
More on Hirsi Ali here.

Posted by Pieter Dorsman at 08:38 PM | DIGG This | del.icio.us | TrackBack (0)