I think Islam is in a sense, in crisis. It needs to question and re-question itself.

Look at Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution and the slogans that they used: anti-imperialism; anti-colonialism; the struggle of the have-nots against the haves; the state monopoly over economy, which was very much patterned after the Soviet Union. All of these things did not come out of Islam. Islam is not that developed.

It takes courage to die for a cause, but also to live for one.

She was one of those people who are irrevocably, incurably honest and therefore both inflexible and vulnerable at the same time.

Those in the west who dismiss the repressiveness of laws against women in countries like Iran, no matter how benign their intentions, present a condescending view not just of the religion but also of women living in Muslim majority countries, as if the desire for choice and happiness is the monopoly of women in the west.

Every culture has something to be ashamed of, but every culture also has the right to change, to challenge negative traditions, and create to new ones.

The dearer a book was to my heart, the more battered and bruised it became.