Summary: The Caged Virgin: Review and Analysis of Ayaan Hirsi Alis Book

Her political party dropped their support for her in the wake of the controversy, and she stepped down from her parliamentary position. Aside from her political career, Hirsi Ali became widely known for writing Submission: Part I directed by filmmaker Theo VanGoh; she includes the screenplay in her book. Despite her fall from grace in the Netherlands, the American Enterprise Institute, a neoconservative think tank known for its close ties to the Bush administration, offered her a fellowship. She gladly accepted, and has been advising the AEI since her citizenship debacle.

On the whole, the tone of The Caged Virgin is condescending and judgmental. If her reasoning was sound, balanced, and positive she might actually be able to evoke a positive change in the treatment of women. One of the reasons that the Bush administration and the neoconservative AEI admire her so much is that she helps to uphold the stereotypes of Islam and Muslims that the government uses to justify our war in Iraq.

Instead of bringing understanding, she brings distaste and anger; two byproducts of her irrationality that certainly will not help to save Muslim women. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Welcome to Kulna, a fresh take on the traditional academic journal. This is a place for young and seasoned scholars alike to come together to discuss the Middle East. Click submit at the top of the page for more information. Any text, photo or video material appearing on this site is the sole property of its creator.

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Posted by kulnaadmin on February 6, https: Next Post Winds of Change. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email required Address never made public. Can you contribute to help our Brandeis colleague rescue his abducted relatives in … lnkd. Anyone who tells you they know what will happen in Iran is lying: Zero stars from me and I'm deleting this trash from my tablet asap. I feel sorry for whoever gave this pile of vile and bitter words, a good rating. This woman would have been better off going to see a shrink. She desperately needs one. Dec 03, Rebecca rated it really liked it.

I had a difficult time getting through this book, despite it being only about pages long. The problem wasn't the content but that I'd already read Hirsi Ali's memoir, Infidel, and had pretty much stalked her after that this is a common thing I do when an author peaks my interest. What I mean is, I googled her and read everything and anything I could about her. I watched her short film, Submission, and learned as much as I could about what she's doing now that she's had death threats agains I had a difficult time getting through this book, despite it being only about pages long.

I watched her short film, Submission, and learned as much as I could about what she's doing now that she's had death threats against her.

When I chose The Caged Virgin I expected it to be more of a documentary about women in Islam, but in actuality it is a collection of essays, speeches and interviews by or with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. So pretty much I was reading a bunch of stuff I'd already read in her other book or through my online stalking. However, after meeting with Chason last week to discuss the book, I learned that he appreciated the book and the new perspective it gave him. Perhaps if I had read it before reading Hirsi Ali's other book I wouldn't have been so critical.

On the plus side, the essay format makes it easy to read this book in pieces. Since it isn't one long story you don't have to worry about having forgotten something in between reads. I definitely preferred her memoir to this though because it was a story and it made the struggles of Islamic women more real to me. This woman has an amazing life and she's very brave to have put it in writing, considering the consequences she faces for having done so.

Aug 02, Kriegslok rated it liked it. This book is a personal yet widely relevant testimony to the power of religion and the men that religion serves. It lays bare the terror inflicted on women in the name of Islam not the only religion to have enslaved women turning them into chattel and questions the whole basis on which this particular god based ideology was created and has since been maintained.

Using her own life story and bringing in the tragic life stories of other women imprisoned by Islam Ayaan Hirsi Ali calls into quest This book is a personal yet widely relevant testimony to the power of religion and the men that religion serves. Using her own life story and bringing in the tragic life stories of other women imprisoned by Islam Ayaan Hirsi Ali calls into question Western approaches to and relations with Islamic communities and organisations in Europe.

She calls into question the multicultural approach which tends to risk the creation of ethnic ghettos which hold back opportunities among immigrants for self development and the pursuit of freedom justifying on cultural grounds practices which to most in the West would not be intolerable restrictions on personal rights something I have observed in a work context. This is an important book a call for support for those imprisoned by religious dogma, especially women, across the globe. Jun 05, Helynne rated it it was amazing. This is a courageous and vital statement from a woman who escaped the injustices and violence of Islam toward women and is now speaking out to inform the world how Islam should be changed.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who grew up in a strict Muslim family in Somalia, was supposed to marry a distant cousin in Canada, but managed to escape during the journey and take refuge in the Netherlands. There, she became a writer, filmmaker and Dutch parliamentarian who was determined to speak for Muslim women's rights This is a courageous and vital statement from a woman who escaped the injustices and violence of Islam toward women and is now speaking out to inform the world how Islam should be changed.

There, she became a writer, filmmaker and Dutch parliamentarian who was determined to speak for Muslim women's rights. Her main platform in this book is that Muslim women who immigrate to the Western world must be accorded the same rights as other Western women despite their religion.

Therefore, the traditional hands-off, absolutely freedom-of-religion policy that Western countries have toward Muslim residents is actually devastating to women. Women's rights--indeed all human rights--supercede freedom of religion when said religion tends to violence and domination of women.

Hirsi Ali, who now resides in the United States, also speaks in this book about the horrors of female genital mutilation--a common practice in Muslim societies.

She also describes a documentary film she helped write and produce called Submission. Theo Van Gogh, the man who helped her produce the film was subsequently murdered by Muslim extremists. Hirsi Ali also lists steps that Muslim women must take if they wish to escape an intolerable situation and start life anew. This book is a must-read for anyone who values basic human rights. The general points brought up in the book were correct but the way the author brought them up were incredibly silly.

I am no fan of Islam but the amount of generalisations and pure Straw Man arguments were absolutely appalling and all of those were even before the 4th chapter. The final straw for me was the line on page But if that is the case, where is the Islamic Romeo and Juliet? I genuinely have no idea why atheists which I am one generally hold the author's writing in high regard. Maybe i'll muster the patience to finish it sometime in the future but I couldn't go past the fourth chapter this time. Sep 26, Cathy Aquila rated it liked it. Infidel was one of my favorite books of all time.

It was compelling on multiple levels. Infidel told the author's life story and through her journey we learn much about Islam and the mistreatment of women in Muslim society. While this book is well written and discusses many important women's issues, it is not as interesting for anyone who has already read Infidel. In this book the author focuses on women's rights Infidel was one of my favorite books of all time.

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In this book the author focuses on women's rights within the Islamic world. It does not provide any new insights beyond what was discussed in Infidel and it does not provide the personal story found in Infidel. If you've read Infidel there is no reason to read this one. I enjoyed reading The Caged Virgin but having already read Infidel I found much of it to be repetitive. Nevertheless it has an important message, "It's not tolerant to tolerate intolerance. While I followed her story in the news, it was years later that I read Infidel , and not until this year that I read this book. This book includes Ali's screenplay "Submission Part 1" which was filmed by Van Gogh and was the excuse given for the murder of Van Gogh.

I was glad to have read it because you should see what makes people angry for yourself. For instance, if you stopped reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone because you are anti-witchcraft, fine, at least you looked at yourself. If you judge it without reading it, then I got problem with your complaints.

If I were a devout muslim within a certain cultural type, I have no doubt that I would be angry by "Submission" and several of the other essays in the is book. But Ali has a point, and I'm not. Christianity, for instance, has grown and lived due to questioning, to debate, to discussion, to an openess of ideas. Ali writes that debate is needed within a religion so it can allow for the growth of the people. It's hard not to argue with her logic. She also is critical of the West.

One of the points that she makes both in this book and her other two works is that the West, for a variety of reasons, is ill equiped to deal with immigrants that come from radical different cultures. While her examples are confined merely to her experiences in the Netherlands she was an immigrant and then worked as a translator for other immigrants , the examples could be for any country. It isn't just about behavior, for instance, but also the use of credit and the change in how money is handled as well as how much things cost.

She also considers the legal ramifications. Is it right, she asks, that a woman who is barely literate and who was raised to always obey her husband's commands be held repsonible for a signing a legal contract such as loan document, especially when she has no say in how the money will be used? She also demands less cultural sensitivity and more feminist action.

Alice Walker , for instance, has been active in trying to end female gential mulitation, and American women condemn her for sticking her nose into another culture. Ali says that women should, that the pratice is horrible. Okay, I admit that I already agreed with her on these points, but it's nice to someone put into print. It sounds harsh, and to be honest, part of me feels that it is too much governmental oversight, but I cannot see how else to stop it.

At the ever least, reading Ali's books will get you to think, and that's a good thing. Feb 16, Andrew Georgiadis rated it really liked it Shelves: Among the many chapters, there are transcriptions of magazine interviews, the script of her short film "Submission: Part I" which incited the murder of Theo Van Gogh, its director, and 10 steps of guidance to any woman thinking of escaping her "Islam is a static faith.

Part I" which incited the murder of Theo Van Gogh, its director, and 10 steps of guidance to any woman thinking of escaping her situation in Islam. While reading it is a bit scattered, "The Caged Virgin" is succint and vituperative. It succeeds because her perspective, contrary to what some might argue, is critically important in its portrayal of a life millions of Muslim women share. To say otherwise would demonstrate encyclopedic ignorance. Ayaan Hirsi Ali now lives in the United States, and volunteers are solicited to give money to her protection, which is needed every hour of every day of every year, likely forever.

Why, or rather, how is this even possible? The entire Muslim world is not repressive, backward, static. But too much of it is, and those peoples who have liberated their minds and circumstances do not do so to the credit of the tenets of Islam. Christopher Hitchens, in a speech to Hart House at the University of Toronto in , characterizes the situation in the quote below, and its truth is unavoidable.

We deliver opprobrium onto those who criticize a religious idea or practice, yet we accept that the aegis of "religious freedom" comprises your religious right to hatred, misogyny, and eschatology: But who is the one under threat? Do they get arrested for hate speech? Where are your priorities ladies and gentlemen? Shame on you while you do this. This is really serious. Her fury about these crimes makes her essays vibrant and inspiring, as she reminds her readers that women do not have to accept violence in the home or stunted ambitions: You no longer have to tolerate oppression.

Female visionaries who break out of traditional societies often set other people's teeth on edge. To their detractors, Andrea Dworkin was a fantasist, Emmeline Pankhurst was an egoist, and even Mary Wollstonecraft was a hyena in petticoats. For someone like Hirsi Ali a love-it-or-loathe-it fierce confidence was absolutely essential for her to become the woman she is now; she came from a Somali family which moved to Saudi Arabia and then to Kenya without losing its oppressive sense of tradition.

She herself underwent female genital mutilation and was threatened with a forced marriage; if she had not decided to trust her own anger rather than other people's opinions, how else would she have found the confidence to defy that weight of tradition? Yet Hirsi Ali's position in this book and in Submission, the film she made with Theo Van Gogh, is problematic in a very particular way.

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What sticks in the throats of many of her readers is not her feminism, but her anti-Islamism. It is not patriarchy as a whole that she is battling with, but a specific patriarchy sanctioned by a specific religion. The essence of a woman is reduced to her hymen. Her veil functions as a constant reminder to the outside world of this stifling morality.