Dutch Parliament demands rethink on Hirsi Ali ruling

Hirsi Ali has been under police protection since a film she wrote criticising the treatment of women under Islam provoked the murder of its director, Theo Van Gogh, by an Islamic radical. She said she made the decision on Monday night to resign from her post.

‘‘I am therefore preparing to leave Holland,’’ said Hirsi Ali in Amsterdam.

The decision to revoke her citizenship appears driven by domestic Dutch politics. Hirsi Ali falsified her name and date of birth on her asylum application when she arrived in 1992, fearing reprisals from her family after she fled an arranged marriage.

She was granted a passport in 1997 and acknowledged the falsification in 2002 during vetting as a candidate for Parliament. There were no objections then.

After a TV programme re-broadcast the matter last week, Verdonk reviewed her case and found naturalisation had been improperly granted: a ruling by the Dutch SC in 2005 found that passports issued to people with false names are automatically invalid.

Meanwhile, in a Parliament debate, Verdonk, bidding to become her party’s candidate for Prime Minister in the 2007 elections, came under attack from all main parties, including her own.

Verdonk reluctantly accepted a demand by Parliament to reconsider her decision within six weeks and said she would also look at any new request for citizenship immediately.