Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I started reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Biography today, Infidel. At one point she talked about stories her grandmother told her as a child growing up in Somalia. One of them in particular left an image in my mind which I sketched when I got home from work today. The following is the passage I took it from:

"My grandmother's stories could be chilling. There were stories about an ugly old witch woman whose name was People Slayer or People Butcher, who had the power to transform herself, to adopt the face of someone you liked and respected, and who at the last minute lunged at you, laughing in your face, HAHAHAHAHA, before she slaughtered you with a long sharp knife that she had been hiding under the folds of her robe all along and then ate you up."

Wow, nothing like a Somalian bedtime story to keep you awake... forever. I recommend this book to anyone that's curious about women in Islam or women growing up in traditional societies.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yikes !!! XXXOOO