Infidel Book Report

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The novel I choose for the cozy winter reading assignment was Infidel written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The novel is about Ayaan’s childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya and her struggles with those three rocky countries. The novel is also about her rise and influence in Dutch politics. The novel's purpose is to share her story and to bring awareness to the rights of Muslim women.
Infidel is rich with information about culture in different countries and can be applied to many things we have talked and discussed about in class. The first concept I will be talking about is how in a culture there are artifacts (technology that allows the culture to live), sociofacts (how people organize their society), and mentifacts (ideas, and beliefs of a …show more content…

In Ayaan’s childhood she lives in three countries, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Each of these countries has a religion that affects its culture in some way. In Saudi Arabia, where the Islam is most common religion, the culture is influenced by both the religion and it’s followers. In order to get a taxi women would need to be accompanied by a male family member, children have to go to Quran School, people were stoned and beheaded, and the calendar was based on the Islamic lunar month cycle. In Ethiopia, a predominantly Christian country, the culture is very different. Women are allowed to wear skirts to their knees or pants, people smoke, women did not have to wear headscarves. Ayyan states that she felt freer in Ethiopia compared to Saudi Arabia. Kenya had both Islamic and Christian followers along with tribal religions and the culture was mixed. There were people who smoked and while at the same time some women wore headscarves. There were both religious and non-secular schools. Kenya was a mixing pot of parts of the Saudi Arabian culture and the Ethiopian culture along with others. There are also geographic aspects to take into consideration. Saudi Arabia has the most modern technology out of the three countries. The roads are paved, and there are apartments along with modern looking buildings but there is garbage everywhere. Ayyan describes Ethiopia as a poor country even more poor then Mogadishu, the capital of …show more content…

It was able to keep me entertained the whole time and I learned many things about life in Africa during the 60’s and 70’s. I also was able to learn about the different culture in multiple countries and how different they are from the west. I believe this book achieved its goals of bringing awareness to the rights of Muslim women. Ayaan was able to do that with the Dutch and with this book she might be able to help those in countries where women are still

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