Reclaiming the Voice of the ‘Third World Woman’

But What Do We Do When We Don't Like What She Has to Say? The Tricky Case of Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Bibliographic Data

ID18971018
AuthorsKiran Grewal (0000-0002-0130-6015, The University of Sydney, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume14
Issue4
Pages569-590
Publication date2012-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInterventions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-801X • E-ISSN: 1469-929X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369801x.2012.730861
OpenAlexW1697184955
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited30

While conservative Somali writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali has become a widely recognized and acclaimed figure in the West, she has generally been ignored or derided by postcolonial feminists. This has largely been due to her extremely provocative and often offensive statements regarding Islam and Muslim immigrants in the West. While Hirsi Ali is clearly problematic, in this essay I argue that engagement with her is both necessary and useful. On the one hand, an examination of Hirsi Ali's success shows the implication of a particular discourse that postcolonial feminists have unwittingly endorsed: namely an essentialized and overly celebratory positioning of the authentic ‘Third World woman's voice’. On the other hand, I argue that critical engagement with Hirsi Ali also opens up interesting sites of rejuvenation for postcolonial feminism and a means of developing a more nuanced and truly decolonized anti-racist, feminist politics

Aesthetics · Art · Feminism · Offensive · Political science · Politics · Racism · Sociology · Somali · Third world · Anarchism and Radical Politics · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Law · Philosophy

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