#1613 - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

I really appreciate it. Thanks for being here.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (0:18)

Yeah, thank you so much.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

So you were saying that you're having a hard time getting people to talk to you.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (0:27)

Not exactly. I'm saying that when I had other books published, my publisher would say, here's a list of places you're going to promote the book. And it was quite striking that this year it wasn't.

I published my last book in 2015, it's called Heretic, and I was sent to MSNBC, all of the mainstream media agencies, CNN. It was all over the place. They said, we want you to go there.

And I went there. And this year, I just have to do podcasts, it looks like.

Joe Rogan (1:14)

So what has been the response from these mainstream sources, whether it's MSNBC or CNN or any of these places, they just aren't interested?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1:24)

I don't know exactly what the communication is between them and HarperCollins, and HarperCollins is my publisher. But I had one invitation from a magazine called Bust, B-U-S-T.

It's for girls and women.

Joe Rogan (1:39)

Is that about breasts? Bust as in breasts?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1:43)

Is that what it means?

I don't know.

I've been told it's a magazine for very young people, and it's widely distributed, so it's something that's popular. And if you come out with a book about women, well, Bust would be a good place to go to. And then I was told, so they had a journalist lined up and a photographer. It was going to be a big deal. And then we got a story saying, sorry, it's not going to happen after all, because Ayaan supported JK. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, when in my view, JK. Rowling came out in support of women. But I'm told that I make the people who read that particular magazine unsafe or that there's a potential that I could make them unsafe.

Joe Rogan (2:41)

Yeah, that's the phrase that gets used, make them unsafe or make them feel unsafe or put them in danger.

First of all, JK. Rowling's statements, they were not nearly as controversial as people made them out to be for whatever reason. Do you remember exactly what she said?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (3:03)

She said a number of things. I think she challenged people like she and myself being called people who menstruate.

Joe Rogan (3:11)

Yes.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (3:12)

And she did do it, you know, with that British sense of humor. So what are we called these days?

And she had woman spelled in different ways. I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it because I only saw the spelling.

Joe Rogan (3:29)

I like when they put the X.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (3:32)

Yes. Yeah, Womxn or whatever. Aren't we even allowed to have a name?

Joe Rogan (3:37)

People who menstruate, I'm sure there used to be a word for these people. Someone help me out. Wumbin. Wumbund. Wumud.

Opinion. Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate. Yeah.

That is the... Yeah. Well, her along with Martina Navitrolova, which is another person who got attacked by the woke mob, where you just go, wow, how far has this gone? Where a prominent lesbian woman, who was one of the first out athletes ever, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, who says it's not fair for biological males to compete against women in these sports. And she gets labeled like the most vicious, bigot, alt-right person you could imagine. Like, how far has this stuff gone?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (4:25)

It's gone too far. And for women like me, it's gone way too far. I mean, where I come from, most women are actually fighting for the most basic rights, rights to be safe, not to be killed. Where I come from, people, women, are subjected to femicide. They don't like you, they kill you.

You violate the honor, they kill you. They take away your genitals. So there's a very basic set of rights that we don't even have that we are fighting for. And so to get to a place where, in the advanced world, we are told, you can't even be called by your own name. You know, we've got to figure, people who menstruate. When I read that, I just, first I thought it was a joke, and I thought I could laugh it off.

And then I came around and I thought, this is not a laughing matter.

We are going to have to stand up for at least what we've achieved in the West and hope to drag people in the developing world to come to where we are. But our name as woman, plural women, is not going to be taken away. And I admire JK. Rowling for taking that fight on.