A conversation with Ayaan Hirsi Ali

About the Speaker:
A distinguished political leader and relentless champion of free speech and women’s rights, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of today’s most admired and controversial public figures. She will be coming to MIT to discuss her latest book: Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (published March 2015). Hirsi Ali has been honored as one of TIME Magazine's "100 Most Influential People", a Glamour Magazine Hero and as Reader's Digest's European of the Year.  Praised as “required reading for everyone everywhere,” her memoir Infidel illustrates how a determined woman can impact much more history than just her own. Currently, Hirsi Ali is a fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

Joining the conversation will be John Tirman, the executive director and a principal research scientist at MIT's Center for International Studies. A prolific writer, his most recent book is Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American Backlash (published March 2015).