Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of todays most admired and controversial political figures.

She burst into international headlines following the 2004 murder by an Islamist of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh who was left in an Amsterdam street with a letter pinned to his chest that promised that Hirsi Ali the screenwriter on Van Goghs film Submission would be killed next.

Eagerly awaited Infidel shows the coming of age of this elegant distinguished and sometimes reviled champion of free speech and gives the absorbing back story to how she developed her beliefs iron will and her extraordinary determination to fight injustice done in the name of religion and change the world for the better.

Raised in a strict Muslim family and extended clan Hirsi Ali survived civil war female circumcision brutal beatings the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and life in four countries under dictatorships.

She escaped from a forced marriage and in 1992 sought asylum in the Netherlands where she fought for the rights of Muslim women and the reform of Islam earning her the enmity of reactionary Islamists and craven politicians.

Under constant threat she refuses to be silenced.

Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity Hirsi Alis story tells how a bright curious dutiful little girl evolves into a pioneering freedom fighter a woman who has put her life on the line to work for womens rights and an enlightened Islam and as a result has won numerous humanitarian awards.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu Somalia was raised Muslim and spent her childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia.

In 1992 Hirsi Ali came to the