Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Dutch-American feminist, author, and former politician of Somali descent. She is a critic of Islam and advocate for the rights and self-determination of Muslim women, opposing forced marriage, honor killing, child marriage, and female genital mutilation. She has founded an organization for the defense of women's rights, the AHA Foundation.

Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1969. She fled Somalia in 1992 and sought asylum in the Netherlands. In 2003, she was elected to the Dutch Parliament. In 2004, she co-produced a short film with Theo van Gogh called Submission, which criticized Islamic treatment of women. Van Gogh was assassinated shortly after the film's release.

Hirsi Ali has since moved to the United States, where she is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the American Enterprise Institute. She is a frequent commentator on political and social issues, and her books include Infidel and Nomad: A Muslim Woman's Odyssey.