Infidel (2007) is an autobiographical memoir by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She recounts her childhood and adolescence across Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, and her eventual flight to the Netherlands to seek asylum and escape a forced marriage. The narrative links intimate experiences of gender violence to larger arguments about religion, politics, immigration, and free speech, culminating in Hirsi Ali’s role in Dutch politics and the fallout after the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. The memoir explores Gendered Socialization as the Systematic Erasure of Agency, Faith, Doubt, and the Construction of Moral Authority, and The Importance of Free Speech in Democracy.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an influential Somalia-born Dutch American activist, writer, and thinker, who brings an insider’s perspective to growing up in fast-radicalizing Islamic societies. Hirsi Ali is a polarizing figure because of her critical views on Islam and immigration.

This guide uses the Free Press, Simon and Schuster 2007 Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide include depictions of gender discrimination and violence, female genital mutilation, rape, forced marital sex, murder, mental illness, the physical and sexual abuse of children, antisemitism, stillbirth, miscarriage, abortion, and war crimes.

Language Note: To avoid confusion with Hirsi, her father, the guide refers to Hirsi Ali as “Ayaan” in the plot summary and chapter summaries and analyses sections.

Summary

In the Introduction, set in the present timeline, Hirsi Ali describes how friend Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker with whom she had collaborated on her short film Submission, Part One, was murdered in 2004 shortly after the film’s release. Theo was shot repeatedly and his throat sawn by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Moroccan-Dutch Muslim, who believed Submission was blasphemous. Bouyeri also stabbed a death threat to Hirsi Ali on van Gogh’s body.

After the brutal murder, Hirsi Ali has grown even more determined to speak the truth about her break from Islam, her childhood, and her political views. She begins the story of her past with her early childhood, spent in Mogadishu, the new capital of Somalia. Ayaan’s family is from the desert region, but her mother Asha moves to Mogadishu with her son, Muhammad, after a divorce from her first husband. In Mogadishu, Asha is introduced to Hirsi Magan, a young, urban man who studied anthropology in the United States. Charmed by the intellectual Hirsi, Asha marries him. Soon, she gives birth to a son, Mahad, followed by daughters Ayaan and Haweya. In 1972, Hirsi, a vocal opponent of the ruling communist dictator Siad Barre, is jailed in The Hole, the name of the infamous former Italian prison in Somalia.

Hirsi’s absence causes an immediate financial crisis, with Asha travelling to the homes of relatives to procure money through contraband channels. Asha’s mother Ayeeyo moves in to look after the children. During one of the times Asha is away, Ayeeyo does something unforgivable: She arranges for a circumcision for Mahad and an excision (female genital mutilation) for Ayaan and Haweya, even though Hirsi believes excision is unislamic. Ayaan and Haweya are mutilated, Haweya’s wounds getting infected and leaving her with lifelong scars. Asha is incensed to learn of her mother’s actions when she returns, but it is too late.

Hirsi escapes jail with the help of his followers and moves to neighboring Ethiopia. Since Ethiopia and Somalia are at war, Asha cannot meet Hirsi in either country. Hirsi arranges for Asha and the children to shift permanently to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but fails to make it to the airport to pick up his family, rushing to Ethiopia following a political upheaval there. Since the strict Islamic law of Saudi Arabia forbids a woman from going out alone without an adult male guardian, Asha remains stranded in the airport till a clan member discovers her and takes the family home.

Asha moves the family to Mecca so that her children receive a pious upbringing, but the children dislike her new rules and the oppressive atmosphere in Saudi Arabia, which follows strict Islamic law. Hirsi is eventually reunited with his family, but there are rumors he has another wife and child in Ethiopia (he also left behind a family in the US). In 1979, when Ayaan is nine, the family get deported from Saudi Arabia. What follows is a period of several, unannounced moves, with Asha and the children ultimately moving to Nairobi, Kenya.

In Nairobi, Hirsi enrolls the children in an English-language school. With Hirsi’s travels keeping him mostly away, Asha is strapped for money in Nairobi. A frustrated Asha takes to beating her children, especially her daughters. She hires a ma’alim, a religious teacher, to educate them in the Quran. When Ayaan talks back to the strict ma’alim, he beats her up so badly her skull cracks, requiring surgery. Asha is extremely contrite after the incident, and the beatings stop for a long time.

Ayaan and Haweya shift to the multicultural Muslim high school where Ayaan discovers the school library and forges a deep love for books. The classic English novels of the 19th and 20th centuries introduce her to the idea of romantic love, freedom, and choice. In tandem, Ayaan also becomes heavily influenced by Sister Aziza, her Islamic Studies teacher. Ayaan takes to veiling herself in a hidjab and starts praying regularly, much to Asha’s delight. However, she also develops feelings for Mahad’s friend Yusuf, going out with him in secret and kissing him, even though such behavior is sinful for a young, unmarried girl.

The Muslim Brotherhood, a global Islamic organization, becomes popular in Nairobi, with impassioned young preachers giving lectures on the need for Muslim solidarity and the superiority of Islamic law. Unable to reconcile the narrow-minded views of the Brotherhood with her rational thoughts, Ayaan starts feeling conflicted about her faith. After she finishes school, Ayaan is sent to Mogadishu with Haweya so the young women can be under the supervision of their clansmen. In Mogadishu, a relative procures Ayaan a job with the UNDP and introduces Ayaan to the handsome Mahamud. Infatuated with Mahamud, Ayaan accepts his offer of marriage. They wed in secret, but the wedding night is every bit as terrifying as Ayaan had heard from her friends in Kenya. As Mahamud goes to Europe, promising to send for her, Ayaan makes up her mind to dissolve the marriage.

When the political unrest in Mogadishu worsens, Asha summons Haweya and Ayaan home, the young women narrowly escaping the full-scale civil war that breaks out over the next few days. Hirsi abruptly arranges Ayaan’s marriage with a man called Osman Moussa, who wishes to live with her in Canada. When Ayaan refuses, Hirsi tells her he has already made his decision. Ayaan is married to Osman Moussa, her previous marriage considered null. As Osman flies back to Canada, Ayaan is set to leave for Germany in a few weeks to get her visa processed.

In Germany, Ayaan travels to the old town of Dusseldorf to stay with relatives. She immediately falls in love with the neatness and order, and the freedom she sees everywhere. Ayaan makes a monumental decision: To escape a life of subjugation, she decides to run away to the Netherlands, where her chances of getting political asylum as a refugee are higher. She goes to a migrant center and registers an application.

Ayaan’s counsellor tells her that fleeing an arranged marriage may not be a strong enough reason to be granted amnesty, so Ayaan includes a narrative about fleeing the civil war—a blend of her own experiences and the stories of her relatives. To avoid detection by her father, she changes her date of birth and name, going by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Ali being her paternal grandfather’s birth name) instead of Ayaan Hirsi Magan. As she refuses to return to Osman Moussa, an angry Hirsi calls up Ayaan and tells her he will never speak to her again.

Ayaan’s receives a pink-card approval a few weeks later, which permits her to work and buy property in the Netherlands and, after five years, apply for Dutch citizenship. Ayaan is overjoyed. She rents a bicycle from her allowance and begins taking classes for the qualifying exam for university. Since she is fluent in Somali and knows some Arabic, Ayaan becomes a volunteer translator at refugee centers where she discovers many Muslim women face the same subjugation they were trying to escape in their home countries. Ayaan enrolls for her political science degree at Leider university, and makes many friends, developing a great appreciation for the Dutch love for free speech. She dates Marco, a journalist, and finds work with The Wiardi Beckman Institute, the political bureau of Wim Kok’s ruling Labor Party.

As Ayaan’s opinions on Islam’s complicated relationship with women and non-believers become known, she is asked to write for local dailies and magazines. Ayaan loves her work, but she finds that her party tries to censor her views when she critiques Islam. This schism worsens after 9/11, with Ayaan contending that Islamic violence is rooted in the Quran, rather than the work of an extremist fringe. Eventually, Ayaan, now a Dutch citizen, resigns from her job to join the Liberal Party, which offers her a parliamentary ticket. In early 2003, Ayaan becomes a member of the Dutch Parliament. Her vocal criticism of Islam invites the ire of extremists, with Ayaan receiving death threats. She is assigned security round the clock. Meanwhile, Haweya, whose mental health has been deteriorating, dies.

Ayaan becomes an atheist, realizing she must find a moral authority outside the religion of her birth. She meets Theo and makes Submission. After Theo’s murder, Ayaan’s security becomes even more intense, with her constantly moved in and out of safe houses, her neighbors complaining that her presence is a threat. In 2006, the ruling Labor Party sends her the notice that her citizenship is to be revoked because of the discovery of her “lies” on her application. Increasingly disillusioned with the Dutch Left, Ayaan decides to resign from politics and move to the US, even though her citizenship is eventually restored. As the book ends, Ayaan tells the reader that her mission in writing the memoir is to argue for a reformation of Islam, the way Christianity was reformed during the Enlightenment. This reformation will ensure Islamic communities are kinder to their female members, offering them freedom and choice.