I really feel that political will is born out of popular will.

There are so many misperceptions and stereotypes out there that I would love to see clarified one day.

Religion and modernity are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Holy scripture does not hold women back. It's the people that decide to interpret it in such a way for their own, sometimes political, agendas.

I work in areas related to child protection and family safety, women's empowerment, the creation of opportunities for youth, and culture and tourism. Daunting? Yes. Impossible? No. In fact, such challenges energize me.

First of all, in many Muslim countries women have incredible amounts of freedom, sometimes more than in some countries in Europe. So you cannot just make a generalized statement about women. Second, Islam is not the problem. It's tradition. It's culture. It's age-old mind-sets that need to be changed.

I'm amazed by the misconceptions about Muslim women and the Arab world that I hear, and that really does hurt me.