In my memoir, I wanted to introduce American women to Iranian women and our lives. I'm not from the highest echelons of society, nor the lowest. I'm a woman who is a lawyer, who is a professor at a university, who won the Nobel Peace Prize. At the same time, I cook. And even when I'm about to go to prison, one of the first things I do is to make enough food and put it in the fridge for my family.

Akbar Ganji was in prison for six years, and that was it...for six years, and it was finished. Of course the Iranian government could make up some stories and accuse him of some other things, but the international support didn't let the government do that.

There is a verse [in the Koran] that says God swears by time. Anything you gain in life, you pay for with your time. Time is the most important thing that has been given to man.

Terrorism is based on two major pillars: One is injustice, and the other is a certainty of attitude, the notion that their version of the story is the correct one.

Sixty-three percent of our university students are female. But you still see violations of women's rights in Iran. A Muslim man can have up to four wives. He can divorce his wife without offering any reason, while it is quite difficult for a woman to get a divorce.

We must not enable anyone to impose his personal view regarding religion on others by force, oppression, or pressure.

We must acquaint the youth to the realities of the world... we must tell them that millions of people around the world have no access to drinking water.