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    Ayaan Hirsi Ali
    Research Fellow
    Short Bio

    Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, author of the bestsellers Infidel (2007) and Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (2015), and founder of the AHA Foundation, established to protect and defend the rights of women in the United States from harmful traditional practices.

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    Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former member of Dutch Parliament.

    She is the author of the bestsellers Infidel (2007), Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (2015), and Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights (2021). She also publishes regularly on her Substack, Restoring the West, where she promotes free and open discussion in pursuit of the truth and the protection of Western values.

    Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1969, and raised in a strict Muslim household. At age five, she underwent female genital mutilation. Escaping an impending arranged marriage, Hirsi Ali sought asylum and was later granted citizenship in the Netherlands. After receiving her master’s degree in political science from the University of Leiden, Hirsi Ali entered politics and served as an elected member of parliament (2003–6), where she focused on furthering the integration of non-Western immigrants into Dutch society and defending the rights of Muslim women.

    She collaborated with filmmaker Theo van Gogh on the short film Submission (2004), which criticized the treatment of women in Islam. After its release, Van Gogh was murdered by an Islamist extremist. Hirsi Ali resigned from parliament after a controversy over the threatened revocation of her citizenship. She subsequently moved to the United States.

    In 2007, Ayaan founded the AHA Foundation, to protect and defend the rights of women in the United States from harmful traditional practices. Her next book, Why I Am Now a Christian, is planned for publication in 2027.

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    To view, the complete bio visit https://www.hoover.org/profiles/ayaan-hirsi-ali.

About

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former member of Dutch Parliament.

She is the author of the bestsellers Infidel (2007) and Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (2015). Her other notable publications include Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights (2021) and The Challenge of Dawa (2017). Hirsi Ali also publishes regularly on her Substack, Restoring the West, where she promotes free and open discussion in pursuit of the truth and the protection of Western values.

Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1969. Brought up in a strict Muslim household, she initially embraced the Islamic faith. At age five, Hirsi Ali underwent female genital mutilation, arranged by her grandmother while her parents were away.

Her father was a prominent opposition figure to the Somali dictatorship, which led to her family’s living in exile. They moved from Somalia to Saudi Arabia, then briefly to Ethiopia, and eventually settled in Nairobi, Kenya, where Hirsi Ali spent much of her youth.

In 1992, at age 22, Hirsi Ali’s father arranged a marriage to a distant cousin in Canada. En route, she fled to the Netherlands, where she was given asylum and, in time, citizenship. She quickly learned Dutch and later received her master’s degree in political science from the University of Leiden.

Hirsi Ali entered politics and served as an elected member of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy from 2003 to 2006. While in parliament, she focused on furthering the integration of non-Western immigrants into Dutch society and on defending the rights of Muslim women.

She collaborated with filmmaker Theo van Gogh on the short film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women in Islam. After its release, in 2004, Van Gogh was murdered by an Islamist extremist, who left a note threatening Hirsi Ali. She has since lived with around-the-clock security detail.

In 2006, controversy arose when Dutch authorities revealed inaccuracies in her asylum application. This led to threatened revocation of her citizenship and prompted her resignation from parliament. The Dutch government later confirmed that Hirsi Ali was indeed a legitimate Dutch citizen. The government’s handling of the controversy created a parliamentary fallout and collapse of the cabinet, leading to early elections. Disillusioned with the Netherlands, she subsequently moved to the United States.

In 2007, Ayaan founded the AHA Foundation, to protect and defend the rights of women in the United States from harmful traditional practices. Today, the AHA Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization working to end honor violence and protect women’s rights, and is committed to preserving, protecting, and promoting liberal freedoms and ideals.

Hirsi Ali married historian Niall Ferguson in 2011 and very proudly became an American citizen in 2013. In 2023, Hirsi Ali announced her conversion to Christianity after years of being an outspoken atheist. Her next book, Why I Am Now a Christian, is planned for publication in 2027.

 

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Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women's Rights via HarperCollins Publishers
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The Challenge of Dawa: Political Islam as Ideology and Movement and How to Counter It

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