This was a book for the library book club. It was a look at Ayaan's life as a Somalian girl growing up in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya as a Muslim female. She was excised (female mutilation) as a young girl, forced into marriage to a man her father knew for an hour before agreeing to the marriage, fled to the Netherlands, and was forced to move to America after multiple death threats. This was a hard book to read, knowing that this happens every day, even in this country. I had managed to convince myself that it was only a few extremist Islamics that were giving the rest of the religion a bad name, but reading this forced me to question a religion that says the testimony of women is worth half a man's, condones violence against women, and says a woman's sexuality is a dangerous thing. This book also questions allowing immigrants to retain all of their culture in a new country, without adapting any to the country's beliefs and laws. This is a situation we are dealing with here in America, not just in Europe. I will be reading her next book very soon.
