About Restoring the West
The civilization that gave the world individual liberty, the rule of law, freedom of conscience, and human dignity is not in decline because its enemies are strong. It is in decline because too many of its defenders have forgotten how to make the case for it.
Restoring the West exists to change that.
Founded by the women’s rights activist and bestselling author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Restoring the West is a journal of opinion, analysis, and cultural criticism organized around a single conviction: the West is worth defending, and the arguments for defending it deserve to be made with clarity, rigor, and moral seriousness. Formerly known as Restoration, the publication has been relaunched with a broader mission and a deeper editorial commitment to the civilizational debates of our time.
Hirsi Ali brings to this work a perspective that is rare and hard-won. Born in Somalia, she has lived under the oppressive conditions she now writes about and has spent decades as one of the world’s leading voices for individual freedom, women’s rights, and the defense of Enlightenment principles. The AHA Foundation, which she founded in 2007 to combat honor violence, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation, reflects the same conviction that animates this publication: that liberal values must be defended, not assumed.
We publish daily. Every weekday, one of our five pillars takes center stage: Faith & Family, Law & Liberty, Education, Media Arts & Culture, and Nation & Citizenship. These pillars are the foundations on which free societies are built, and the fronts on which they are currently contested. Our contributors include leading classical liberal, conservative, and freedom-oriented thinkers alongside emerging voices committed to the same mission.
Every Saturday, Ayaan herself writes. The World According to Ayaan is her unfiltered column — what she’s reading, thinking, and watching, and what it reveals about the civilizational moment we are all living through.
We do not report the news. We help you understand what the news means, why it matters, and what it demands of people who care about the future of free societies. We write for people who need to be persuaded and to persuade others, not just people who already agree. Our goal is not affirmation. It is intellectual ammunition — the kind that shapes minds, changes debates, and equips a new generation for the work of restoration.
The West will not be saved by winning news cycles. It will be saved by winning the argument.
That argument starts here.
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