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

I knew I hated him as only a woman can hate a man, as only a slave can hate his master.

Yet not for a single moment did I have any doubts about my own integrity and honour as a woman. I knew that my profession had been invented by men, and that men were in control of both our worlds, the one on earth, and the one in heaven. That men force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body is that of a wife. All women are prostitutes of one kind or another.

Memory is never complete. There are always parts of it that time has amputated. Writing is a way of retrieving them, of bringing the missing parts back to it, of making it more holistic.

Women are suffering because they are being excluded. The high military council excluded women from the committee to change the constitution [of Egypt]. We cannot be liberated as women in a society built on class oppression or gender oppression or religious oppression.

Truth is relative, and there is always something missing in truth that prevents it from being perfect.

Solidarity between women can be a powerful force of change, and can influence future development in ways favourable not only to women but also to men.