I always want to remain positive. In our long history, Iran has been invaded by so many other countries and despite it all, the Iranian identity has survived. People are very courageous, especially the women, who are braver than the men.

In Iran, as in all developing countries, they wanted to copy the outside world, without knowing what was good for our own country.

You have to judge everybody on balance, all the positives and all the negatives. In the life of my husband, I think the positives outweigh the negatives.

There are many people inside Iran who say, "We don't have enough to eat. Why do we need a nuclear bomb?"

I believe in freedom for women to have equal rights - the right to work, the right to hold high positions, the right to take custody of their children after divorcing.

There are many Iranians working at NASA. One of the engineers involved with the spaceship that went to Mars is an Iranian.

You cannot expect a foreign country to be more Catholic than the pope for you.