The Influx of Immigrants into Europe and the Increase in Sexual Violence

 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born into a Muslim family in Somalia, and after a brief period of living in Saudi Arabia her family settled in Kenya, where she was raised. In 1992, at the age of 23, fleeing an arranged marriage she sought asylum in the Netherlands. Successfully escaping from her family who had forced her to undergo genital mutilation as a child, she integrated into Dutch society. She learnt the language and studied political science at Leiden University. Soon, she became a prominent critic of radical Islam, triggering the wrath of Muslim extremists (she was put on an Al-Qaeda hit list in 2010) as well as achieving international recognition, making it onto Time’s top 100 most influential people in the world in 2005. A US citizen since 2013, she now works at the Hoover Institution where she did her research writing under the title Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights.
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As to why Europe does so little to prevent the erosion of women’s safety, Hirsi Ali argues that it is politically inconvenient for many European governments to acknowledge that the crisis of women’s safety might be linked to immigration, as well as to the cultural heritage of the immigrants.
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In parts of Paris and other great European cities there are now ‘no-go’ areas for women, and women seem to disappear from public spaces as they are no longer safe for them. Europe is undergoing a change—this is the thesis of the book—and the hard-earned rights and safety of women are now being rolled back.
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Avoiding the question of whether increasing sexual violence in Europe is or is not linked to the immigration of a large number of men will not solve the issue, The Wall Street Journal argues. On the other hand, a taboo surrounding this question can indeed fuel the radical right, which will, therefore, monopolize the discussion. As The Wall Street Journal highlights, Prey is ‘a courageous and bracing book’ which tries to shed light on this unquestionably important and inconvenient topic by dragging it out of the taboo zone. By normalizing the conversation about immigration and its effect on women’s rights, the topic can be the subject of a democratic discourse in which all sides are able to take part freely, instead of allowing the radicals to monopolize the discussion.
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