The following are excerpts from an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Muslim anti-Islamist. She was in a Muslim tribe in Somalia and when her family tried to force her to marry, she ran away to the Netherlands. She was then elected to Parliament but because of her very vocal views about Islamic radicalism, she lives in hiding. I've just taken a few of her quotes and answers to questions. You can find the whole interview here.

How does it feel to go from that (Somali tribal culture) to having so much more freedom now?

When I first came to the Netherlands, once a month you have to write down how much you spend on what, what is my income. The assumption is that you're going to have an income every month over and over again! And that you save and you get insurance, and you think of your life 10, 20, 30 years ahead. People from the third world, we just live with the day, in the present. So I find living in freedom becomes very challenging, to map out a life of what I want to do, when, how.

In a way, it's easier if you're just told what to do. When I was growing up, no one ever expected me to get an income and divide it up in pieces. You are not consulted as to whom you want to marry. You're handed over to your husband, and he tells you what to do. Now I have to decide everything myself. I have to make my own choices.

This is why when some of the Muslim women send me letters they say life in America or Europe is much more difficult than when they were with their family. And I understand why - because when you are in a constrained situation, you think, "If only I could get out." You don't think about once you get out what you're going to do, how you're going to cope.

When my sister came to Netherlands and there was nothing to rebel against, she cracked. She couldn't deal with the situation of freedom.

How have your feelings about an appropriate role for a woman changed?

I was brought up to believe that the role of a woman is exclusively that of wife and mother and the years before, you're only groomed to get to that point. I started to put question marks on that as I became a teenager. I could observe my mother's life, I could see the other young girls of my age who were married off and the way they lived. It seemed to me very sad and full of despair. They were dependent for life. My view of that changed as I grew up, and very much when I came to the Netherlands. A life of one's own choice is the best approach.

In the West we like to believe female genital mutilation and honor killings are being done to women by men. But it's women who pass down these traditions.

In the tribal Islamic order, everyone is caught in the system. Even though my father prohibited my mother from circumcising us, it was my grandmother who did it behind his back, because from her perspective, the idea of her granddaughters remaining unmarried or being ridiculed as filthy and impure was more unbearable than the pain she inflicted on us.

What's your advice to young women about how to go after what they want in life?

In the West, the law is such that you can't be forced into marriage, you can't be forced into something you don't want to, at least the authorities will protect you. A life of freedom is in a way more difficult when choices are made for you. But at least it's your own freedom and when you do things good you feel proud and grateful and when you make mistakes you have the dignity of learning from those mistakes yourself.

I always have admiration for women who are able to find their own freedom, who are able to enjoy it for what it's worth and able to help others achieve it. There are some theories and views of Ayaan's that I don't agree with, but the admiration is still there.

Plus, on a lighter note, she cites the Nancy Drew series as her first impression of a Western woman, solving mysteries as an equal to male detectives. How awesome is that?

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