In this book Ayaan follows up on her family situation from where it left off in her first book Infidel.  At this point, Ayaan has moved to the USA yet still faces some of the same issues she faced when she was living in the Netherlands.  As an ex-Muslim, she focuses her efforts on the immigration issues in the west, particularly in the Muslim community. With this she proposed a wonderful idea she referred to as the “Enlightenment Project,” inspired by European history.  “The intellectual tradition of European Enlightenment, which began in the seventeenth century and produced its greatest works in the eighteenth, is based on critical reasoning. It employs facts instead of faith, evidence instead of tradition. Morality in this worldview is determined by human beings, not by an outside force.” I am proud of a woman like Ayaan, for her story and tremendous courage, and her experiences result in ideas that can be applicable to understand and facilitate change.  Personally, I enjoyed her book Infidel more than this one, but each stands on its own to carry out the important messages Ayaan is trying to convey.

Background drawing by Ghadah Alkandari