Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the Double-Bind of Muslim Women�s Rights

 Great artice by Rochelle Terman.

To be clear: There are plenty of great reasons to reject Hirsi Ali for an honorary degree besides the fact that she represents one extreme of the double-bind. Contrary to the claims by right-wing pundits, Hirsi Ali was rejected for an honorary degree at Brandeis University because she espouses deplorable positions, not because she�s a �critic of Islam.� And we need not invalidate or belittle her personal experience with gender violence to find her political positions and actions deplorable.

Take, for instance, her bigotry (She calls Islam �a destructive, nihilistic cult of death� and called Islamophobia a �myth�); or her militarism (�we are at war with Islam� and must �crush� the enemy with force); of course, her paranoia and fear-mongering (�there is infiltration of Islam in the schools and universities of the West�) is also illustrate of her unworthiness.  There is also her hypocrisy (she�s a self-purported advocate for free speech but advocates the abolition of Muslim schools, saying �All Muslim schools. Close them down.�) And her apologetic stance towards right-wing terrorism, extremism, and fascism (she said Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik�s views were �censored� and that  �he had no other choice but to use violence�) is yet another indicator of her views and politics.

These are the legitimate grounds upholding the reversal of Hirsi Ali�s honorary degree, not airing our dirty laundry. The real issue in the Brandeis debate is (or should be) her and not how people might interpret her.

Full article.