Ayaan Hirsi Ali was nominated honorary guide on Feb. 6, 2006. This Dutch feminist, writer, and politician was born in Somalia, left her native country at 22 to escape from an arranged marriage, and found refuge in the Netherlands, where she later became an elected representative. A strong advocate of the freedom of Muslim women, she became a target of Islamic extremists. Theo Van Gogh, director of “Soumission,” (“Submission”), a film critical of the treatment of women in Islamic society, was murdered by such a group in November 2004, and Dutch authorities have confirmed that Hirsi Ali, who wrote the screenplay, is also in danger.
