The caged virgin : an emancipation proclamation for women and Islam / Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Well-known feminist Ali was named as the next target of outraged Muslims in a letter pinned with a knife to the chest of slain Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, murdered in 2004. Ali was the screenwriter on Van Gogh's film Submission, which questions the individual's relationship with God through the eyes of five Muslim women. In this book, which includes the text of Submission and new essays, Ali criticizes Western nations for deliberately overlooking aspects of Muslim culture that oppress women. In their struggle to integrate ideals of individualism with respect for other cultures, the West leaves Muslim women at the mercy of a "culture of virginity" that oppresses women and threatens their liberty and their lives. Ali details abuses, from genital mutilation to arranged marriages of young girls to domestic violence, suffered by female Muslims. Ali, originally from Somalia and a member of the Dutch Parliament, challenges Western culture and Islam to honestly confront issues of religion and individual freedom in this compelling look at Islam and gender politics.

Includes bibiliographical references (p. [177]-182) and index.

Breaking through the Islamic curtain -- Stand up for your rights!: women in Islam -- Why can't we take a critical look at ourselves? -- The virgins' cage -- Let us have a Voltaire -- What went wrong?: a modern clash of cultures -- A brief personal history of my emancipation -- Being a politician is not my ideal -- Bin Laden's nightmare: interview with Irshad Manji -- Freedom required constant vigilance -- Four women's lives -- How to deal with domestic violence more effectively -- Genital mutilation must not be tolerated -- Ten tips for Muslim women who want to leave -- Submission: part I -- The need for self-reflection within Islam -- Portrait of a heroine as a young woman -- A call for clear thinking.

Muslims who explore sources of morality other than Islam are threatened with death, and Muslim women who escape the virgins' cage are branded whores. So asserts Hirsi Ali's meditation on Islam and the role of women, the rights of the individual, the roots of fanaticism, and Western policies toward Islamic countries and immigrant communities. This controversial book is a call to arms for the emancipation of women from religious and cultural oppression and from an outdated cult of virginity. It is a defiant call for clear thinking and for an Islamic Enlightenment. But it is also the courageous story of how Hirsi Ali herself fought back against everyone who tried to force her to submit to a traditional Muslim woman's life and how she became a voice of reform. She relates her experiences as a Muslim woman so that oppressed Muslim women can take heart and seek their own liberation.--From publisher description.