It is all too easy to draw conclusions and make sweeping judgments about millions of Muslim women based on fleeting television images. That is not right.

When you educate a girl, you kick-start a cycle of success. It makes economic sense. It makes social sense. It makes moral sense. But, it seems, it's not common sense yet.

The youth are the catalysts for real change.

When girls are educated, you get effects that cascade throughout society.

The hardest [part] is some of the misperceptions that are leveled against me as a person and against Muslim women.

To achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East takes guts, not guns.

Extremism is not endemic in my region, nor is anti-Western sentiment. No doubt there is discontent and distrust. That is towards more the American and some Western policies, and not toward the American people.