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Ayaan Hirsi Ali had already made a name for herself as a Dutch MP and a human rights campaigner when she was thrust into the international limelight in the most gruesome way. She'd written the screenplay to a film which was designed to expose the subjugation of women within the Muslim faith. Two months later Theo Van Gogh the filmmaker with whom she collaborated was dead, shot as he cycled down the street, his throat cut and a five page letter stabbed onto his chest by his Islamic extremist assailant. The note said Somali born Hirsi Ali would be next.

She discusses her experience of female genital mutilation at the age of five and explains how she copes with the death threats.