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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: November 10, 2002
Latest Update: November 10, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

The Dutch Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, of Somalia

Photo by: Marco Hillen/Hollandse Hoogte
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a refugee who spoke out against the abuse of Muslim women
in the Netherlands, has fled the country after death threats.

PRAXIS:
Feminists from within other cultures
challenge the oppression of women.

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, November 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

In these last few weeks of the semester, as we talk primarily about "Doing Something," about avoiding complicity in acts we deplore, in finding ways to initiate illocutionary discourse and to move more closely to understanding one another, Ayaan Hirsi Ali becomes a great role model. Women everywhere are breaking out of the denial that has made them crazy. They are learning to say NO, just plain say NO. And in the unity of support that they can afford one another in this process, they are learning that illocutionary discourse has power.

We are learning of that power, here in our classes, as we seek to address the most pressing social problems the world has yet had to cope with. And we are learning to refuse denial, to speak out in awareness. Not just women are learning this. We are all learning it together, and before that onslaught, perhaps many of the old male/female simplistic and harmful model we've been applying all these years will start to slip away.

Doing Something will be the topic for our next three weeks. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's story is crucial to that work. Please be sure you've looked at her story. jeanne