Everybody has to die, Firdaus. I will die, and you will die. The important thing is how to live until you die.

Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those who are harder than life itself.

In history, the millions win; that is democracy.

Thus, after a period of about two thousand years the greatest crime became to worship a god other than the God of Moses, whereas injustice became a minor sin. I began to ask myself how this change had come about. Was it linked to a new order in which the female goddesses had been replaced by one male god?

We cannot be liberated as women in a society built on class oppression or gender oppression or religious oppression.

What we require is not a formal return to tradition and religion, but a rereading, a reinterpretation, of our history that can illuminate the present and pave the way to a better future. For example, if we delve more deeply into ancient Egyptian and African civilisations we will discover the humanistic elements that were prevalent in many areas of life. Women enjoyed a high status and rights, which they later lost when class patriarchal society became the prevalent social system.

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