Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Founder of
the AHA Foundation, a Senior Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer
Center for Science and International Affairs at The Harvard Kennedy School, a member of
the Council on Foreign Relations, and publishes on the Restoring the West Substack,
where she promotes free and open discussion in pursuit of the truth and to protect Western
values.

Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1969 and was brought up in a strict Muslim
household and initially embraced the Islamic faith. At age five, Hirsi Ali underwent female
genital mutilation.

In 1992, Hirsi Ali fled to the Netherlands to escape a forced marriage. She was given
asylum, and in time citizenship. She quickly learned Dutch and later received her master’s
degree in political science from the University of Leiden.

From 2003 to 2006, Hirsi Ali served as an elected member of the Dutch parliament. She
resigned as a member of parliament in 2006 and moved to the US. In 2007, Hirsi Ali
founded the AHA Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to preserving, protecting,
and promoting liberal freedoms and ideals.

In 2023, Hirsi Ali announced her conversion to Christianity after years of being an
outspoken Atheist. Her next book, Why I am Now A Christian is set to be published in 2027.
She is the author of several books including is the best-selling author of Infidel (2007),
Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (2015), and Prey (2021).