Hirsi Magan Isse

Hirsi Magan Isse (* 1935 ; † August 19, 2008 in London ) was a Somali academic, former guerrilla leader in the Somali Democratic Redemption Front against Siad Barre and father of the Islamic critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali . After stays in various countries, he was most recently in exile in London.

Life

Hirsi Magan Isse was one of nine children of Magan Isse Guleid born (1845-1945) in Somalia and is a member of the Majerteen- Darod - clan . In the 1960s he studied linguistics and anthropology in Italy and the USA . In Somalia he worked as a teacher and met Asha in a literacy course , who was his second wife and u. a. Mother of daughter Ayaan , born in 1969, became.

Hirsi Magan Isse was a devout Muslim, but at the same time had modern ideas about political reforms for his country and, for example, rejected the circumcision of his daughters. He rejected the authoritarian government under Siad Barre , which came to power in 1969 . As a linguist, he was an advocate of the Osmaniya script for the Somali language , while Siad Barre preferred the Latin alphabet. He was also descended from a branch of the Darod clan, which was traditionally more powerful than that of Barres. For these reasons, Magan Isse was seen by the government as a threat and was arrested in 1972. In 1976 he managed to escape from prison, after which he and his family moved to Saudi Arabia , later to Ethiopia and in 1980 to Nairobi ( Kenya ). While he left the family of his second wife in Kenya, he was active in the 1980s as a guerrilla leader in the opposition Somali Democratic Redemption Front, which operated with the support of Ethiopia in the Ethiopian-Somali border area.

Magan Isse later married a third woman and eventually returned to his first wife, whom he divorced shortly after his second marriage.

swell

• New York Times: Daughter of the Enlightenment
• Economist.com: Dark secrets