'Mijn Vrijheid'

Over the last week or so I've been reading a book I bought something ago but never had much time to continue. It's been lying on my bedside table and collecting dust.

Finally now that I have some free time, and have been in bed sick, I picked it up again and it's hard to put it down again. It's the autobiography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, perhaps one of my personal modern-day heroines and inspirators. I've written about her somewhat on my other blog, especially how she was 'chased' out of her position as a parliamentarian and out of the country in a witch hunt.

The book itself called 'Mijn Vrijheid' in Dutch ('My Freedom', but published as The Infidel: The Story of My Enlightenment in English), narrates her life until recently, on how she grew up in war-torn Somalia, and fled with her family to various countries, until she sought asylum around fifteen years ago in the Netherlands in order to get out of an arranged (Muslim) marriage. She vividly describes her struggles, conflicts and the pains and laughs she's had to endure as a child. From it all you come to understand that behind every (influential) person (listed as one TIME's 100 most influential persons of the century) are those moments and memories that compell them to strive toward and for what they believe in. In her case, it's the injustices and inequalities, that especially women have to endure, spread and maintained in the name of Islam.

Which got me thinking... wishful thinking, of course. All the horrible things I've endured until now, and still have to put up with, especially coming from my brother, will perhaps one day make me more sensitive to the world and its hypocrisies and injustices.

Of course, I'm not comparing the pains and suffferings of my life to Ayaan's, or any other person. I know my pains and miseries are perhaps trivial compared to what so many more around the world have to endure every single waking moment. And of course I don't dare to claim or dream that I'll one day be some great inspiration to the world,

but maybe,

just maybe I will one day be able to look back at my life now, my life then and think that these are the very reasons why I do what I do, and why I believe in what I believe in.