In spite of testimony from the Dutch police, who assured the court that the building was now one of the safest in all Holland, a court has upheld the demand from her neighbors and fellow citizens that she be evicted from her home. Then the other residents of the block filed suit and complained that her presence exposed them to risk. When she complained in the press, she was eventually found an apartment in a protected building. She was first kept as a virtual prisoner, which made it almost impossible for her to do her job as an elected representative. After being forced into hiding by fascist killers, Ayaan Hirsi Ali found that the Dutch government and people were slightly embarrassed to have such a prominent “Third World” spokeswoman in their midst. (How interesting it is that the two European states most recently attacked in this way-Holland and Denmark-should be the ones that have made the greatest effort to be welcoming to immigrants.) Considering that this book is written by a woman who was circumcised against her will at a young age and then very nearly handed over as a bargain with a stranger, it is written with quite astonishing humor and restraint.īut here is the grave and sad news. If they do feel offended, their very first resort is to violence and intimidation, sometimes with the support of the embassies of foreign states.
At all costs, it seems, others must be allowed “their culture” and-what is more-must be allowed the freedom not to be offended by the smallest criticism of it. These, however, are in some ways less depressing than the excuses made by qualified liberals for their continuation. Before being elected to parliament, she worked as a translator and social worker among immigrant women who are treated as sexual chattel-or as the object of “honor killings”-by their menfolk, and she has case histories that will freeze your blood.
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