The notion of losing one’s religion — undergoing an apostasy — is part of the human story. In some of the most famous words in fiction, James Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus declares, “I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Distinguished Lecture Series’ upcoming speaker, has been channeling Dedalus for decades now. She is also the world’s most controversial feminist, routinely receiving dozens of credible death threats. To some, she is a feminist icon, crusading against religion’s subjugation of women. As a victim of childhood female genital mutilation, Hirsi Ali is certainly an appropriate advocate against such extremism. Yet for others, Hirsi Ali represents the most sinister source of anti-Muslim sentiment possible: a well-meaning Muslim apostate co-opted by neo-conservative forces to support their own political agenda. If you are a person with opinions, you already have an opinion about Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Hirsi Ali is the most controversial figure campus has hosted in years (and campus has hosted David Horowitz). Airport-like security measures will be employed to keep Hirsi Ali safe in Madison.

The Distinguished Lecture Series does not take, and has never taken, formal statements of agreement or disagreement with the speakers we invite to campus. Our goal is dialogue. We believe in academic freedom, in the marketplace of ideas for which an open university is responsible. Among our membership, some agree with Hirsi Ali’s message, while others do not. No members, however, were opposed to her visit. This commitment to conversation is exactly as it should be. And Hirsi Ali’s lecture will conclude with at least 30 minutes of audience Q&A, as an open invitation to those who disagree with her stances. We are proud to be bringing Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

But we are prouder still that the Wisconsin Union Directorate — when alerted two weeks ago to 1) Ms. Hirsi Ali’s controversial ideas, 2) the opposition to her visit by some student groups and academic departments and 3) last-minute additional security costs which would make even the most fiscally liberal member wince — still voted unanimously to unconditionally support this lecture. With this gesture, WUD demonstrates a crucial commitment to free speech.

So who is Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

Born to a conservative Muslim family in Somalia, Hirsi Ali has made a name for herself as a critic of Islam and an avid supporter of women’s rights. Throughout her childhood, she lived in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, and became fluent in six languages. Avid reading as a child opened her mind to Western ideas and values. Hirsi Ali was very close to her father, but he was rarely home due to his active involvement in the Somali Revolution. Her father was a well-educated man who had studied in the West and disapproved of the ancient practice of female genital mutilation, but while he was imprisoned, Hirsi Ali fell victim to the dangerous practice at the tender age of five.

Hirsi Ali fled an arranged marriage and obtained asylum in the Netherlands in 1992. Once in the Netherlands, she obtained a master’s degree in political science, worked as a Somali-Dutch translator and became a member of Dutch Parliament.

Hirsi Ali has been living under fatwa since 2004, when Theo van Gogh, a Dutch director with whom she collaborated with on a short film titled “Submission,” was murdered in the street in broad daylight by a Muslim fundamentalist. Attached to the knife van Gogh was murdered with was a death threat to Hirsi Ali. ”The murder of Theo made me realize how dangerous Islamic fundamentalism is,” she has opined.

A controversy surrounding her refugee application led to the stripping of her Dutch citizenship and resignation from Parliament. She is currently working as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. Hirsi Ali established the AHA Foundation in 2007 to combat Muslim extremists’ women’s rights abuses, including female genital mutilation, forced marriages, honor violence and honor killings.

Before anything else, though, Hirsi Ali is a woman with a story to tell — a harrowing personal story from which she has the right, and the duty, to draw any conclusions she sees fit. Like Stephen Dedalus, she has left her home, her fatherland and her church. She has stood for things in her life. Like all our speakers, she has made her life about something.

And now this woman with a story to tell finds herself days away from visiting UW, appearing before a crowded auditorium of 1,300 people, many possibly unfriendly. Yet fair-minded people of all political and religious stripes owe it to themselves to hear Hirsi Ali speak. We can be a campus that suppresses speech, bottles up controversial opinions and betrays our intellectual responsibilities. Or we can listen, reason and digest, the messenger notwithstanding.

Of the two approaches, DLS prefers the latter.

Meghan Foley ([email protected]) and Eric Schmidt ([email protected]) are volunteers for the Wisconsin Union Directorate Distinguished Lecture Series. Ayaan Hirsi Ali will speak at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Free tickets are now available at the Memorial Union box office to all students with valid university identification. They will become available to the general public on Friday.