Hirsi Ali was born as Ayaan Hirsi Magan in 1969 in Mogadishu, Somalia. Her father Hirsi Magan Isse was put in prison when Hirsi Ali was a baby. She had female genital mutilation done to her when she was five years old. Hirsi Ali's family moved with her to Saudi Arabia then Ethiopia. In 1980 they moved again to Nairobi, Kenya. Hirsi Ali studied at a Muslim Girls' Secondary School.