Open VISIONS Forum

At the epicenter of global events involving Islam’s role in the 21st century, Somalian native Ayaan presents a luminous example of courage, passion, and persistence at great personal risk. Honored by TIME magazine as one of the world’s “100 Most Influential People,” she is an internationally renowned human rights activist, feminist, and women’s rights advocate. The Boston Globe quotes her recent speech critiquing academic freedom on US college campuses as “thoroughly threatened” by complacency. “The answer does not lie in protecting college kids from ideas that disturb them.” She is the award winning author of Infidel: My Life: Nomad: From Islam to America, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now, and is currently a Fellow at the J.F. Kennedy Government School at Harvard University.