I believe that women should have equal rights to education, to work and to civic and political engagement.

What Tunisia urgently needs, is freedom and the building of a real democracy.

We in Tunisia have no problem with respecting other peoples religion, and we have a long tradition of that.

The dictatorship needs to be entirely dismantled. All the rest of the old guard must go.

No one in al-Nahda believes that jihad is a way to impose Islam on the world. But we believe that jihad is self-control, is social and political struggle, and even military jihad is only a way to defend oneself in the case of aggression.

I will not be standing for office. I'm nearing 70; there are younger people within our movement. I just wish to contribute intellectually to the historic process of taking Tunisia from the era of repression to one of democracy.

Just like in medicine, when the normal medicine no longer works, one resorts to surgery. And the revolutions is like the surgery: Its painful, and its the last resort for nations.