Language, journalism, food, sex. All is politics. Even innocent love stories are politics. ... There is no such thing as neutrality.

Plastic surgery is a postmodern veil.

During the '80s I wrote Memoirs from the Women's Prison. This is one of my most important books. It came out in Arabic in '83. About my experience in prison.

I am very much against makeup and high heels and all that we inherit as 'beauty.'

Home to me is the world because my books have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Home is where you are appreciated, safe and protected, creative, and where you are loved - not where you are put in prison.

I had to educate myself about female circumcision, about the clitoris, about sexology. We studied gynecology only. Pregnancy, maternal care, etc.