Muslim Women Quotes

• I am totally against the idea that a Muslim woman should not have the same opportunities as a Muslim man to learn, to open up, to work, help shape the future. To close Islam down to a sexist approach is totally intolerable and ridiculous. It's not Islam.

  King Hussein I

  Opportunity, Men, Ideas

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• As Muslim women, we have been liberated from this silent bondage. We don’t need society’s standard of beauty or fashion, to define our worth. We don’t need to become just like men to be honored, and we don’t need to wait for a prince to save or complete us. Our worth, our honor, our salvation, and our completion lies not in the slave. But, in the Lord of the slave.

  Yasmin Mogahed

  Fashion, Lying, Men

  "Empowerment Of Women Speech" by Yasmin Mogahed, www.yasminmogahed.com. December 12, 2011.

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• I think it's dangerous to look at every Muslim woman the same and to assume that every experience within the religion is the same, meaning that there are going to be strong and assertive women that are Muslim. There's going to be a more passive woman who just so happens to be a Muslim. There may be a funny, big-personality woman and she's Muslim.

  Nia Long

  Strong, Thinking, Personality

  "The Root Interview: Nia Long on 'Mooz-lum' and Motherhood". Interview with Aisha I. Jefferson, www.theroot.com. February 18, 2011.

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• To the Muslim woman, the hijab provides a sense of empowerment. It is a personal decision to dress modestly according to the command of a genderless Creator; to assert pride in self, and embrace one's faith openly, with independence and courageous conviction.

  Randa Abdel-Fattah

  Pride, Self, Decision

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• As a Muslim woman, I’ve been liberated from a silent kind of bondage. I don’t answer to the slaves of God on earth. I answer to their King.

  Yasmin Mogahed

  Kings, Answers, Earth

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• I learned there's a tremendous amount of sisterhood among Muslim women, which I thought was really beautiful.

  Nia Long

  Beautiful, Sisterhood, Amount

  "The Root Interview: Nia Long on 'Mooz-lum' and Motherhood". Interview with Aisha I. Jefferson, www.theroot.com. February 18, 2011.

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• All of my history as an African-American woman, as a Jewish woman, as a Muslim woman. I'm bringing everything I ever knew, and all the stories I've read - everything good, strong, kind and powerful. I bring it all with me into every situation, and I will not allow my life to be minimized by anybody's racism or sexism or ageism.

  Maya Angelou

  Strong, Powerful, Racism

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com. December 2000.

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• The Quran says nothing about the veil, except for an injunction to veil the bosom, which is obvious. As for the face, Muhammad's wife Khadijeh never wore the veil, nor did the other wives of the Prophet after Khadijeh died. [...] The ulema have twisted the Quran with their hadith, always twisting it toward those in power, until the message Muhammad laid out so clearly, straight from God, has been reversed, and good Muslim women are made like slaves again, or worse.

  Kim Stanley Robinson

  Wife, Veils, Hadith

  "The Years of Rice and Salt". Book by Kim Stanley Robinson, 2002.

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• Most Muslim women know it is fear and curiosity that cause people to stare. They know it is ignorance and stereotypes that cause people to suppose that a piece of material covering the hair strips a woman of the ability to speak English, pursue a career, work a remote control.

  Randa Abdel-Fattah

  Ignorance, Hair, Speak English

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

  Queen Rania of Jordan

  Hurt, Doe, World

  "More Questions with Queen Rania". Q&A, content.time.com. May 11, 2007.

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• Muslim women must stand up and speak out about who we are, what we believe and where we are going. I think we need to know that our counterparts in the west are also willing to listen and reciprocate.

  Queen Rania of Jordan

  Believe, Thinking, Speaks Out

  Source: content.time.com

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• Just like in Christianity or Buddhism, obviously there are certain practices that dictate one's life, but I don't think you can say all Muslim women are a certain way.

  Nia Long

  Buddhism, Thinking, Practice

  "The Root Interview: Nia Long on 'Mooz-lum' and Motherhood". Interview with Aisha I. Jefferson, www.theroot.com. February 18, 2011.

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• Let’s not ask Barbara Walters about how Muslim women feel. Let’s not ask Tom Brokaw how Muslim women feel. Let’s not ask CNN, ABC, FOX, The London Times, or the Australia Times. Let’s not ask non-Muslims how Muslim women feel, how they live, what are their principles, and what are their challenges. If you want to be fair, ask a Muslim woman. Ask my wife. Ask my mother. Ask a Muslim woman who knows her religion, who has a relationship with her Creator, who is stable in her society, understands her responsibilities. Ask her.

  Khalid Yasin

  Mother, Responsibility, Australia

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• Betty's a good Muslim woman and wife. I don't imagine many other women might put up with the way I am. Awakening this brainwashed black man and telling this arrogant, devilish white man the truth about himself, Betty understands, is a full-time job

  Malcolm X

  Jobs, Men, White Man

  Malcolm X (2015). “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, p.240, Ballantine Books

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• 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.

  Queen Rania of Jordan

  Fleeting, Television, Judgment

  Source: content.time.com

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• Women are the twin halves of men.

  Muhammad

  Women, Half, Twins

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• I was born in 1965. When I grew up in India, there was no expectation that a good Muslim woman wore the headscarf. But what happened when I came here to the U.S. and the emergence of the Saudi and Iranian theologies in the world is that the headscarf became the hijab and the hijab is now the idea that is synonymous with headscarf.

  Asra Nomani

  Ideas, Expectations, India

  "The Case Against Wearing Hijab To Support Muslim Women". "All Things Considered" with Ari Shapiro, www.npr.org. December 22, 2015.

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• We heard from a professor at an evangelical college who wore a hijab in solidarity with Muslim women. Now we have a different perspective. Asra Nomani co-wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post titled in part "As Muslim Women, We Actually Ask You Not To Wear The Hijab."

  Ari Shapiro

  College, Perspective, Different

  "The Case Against Wearing Hijab To Support Muslim Women". "All Things Considered" with Ari Shapiro, www.npr.org. December 22, 2015.

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• The hijab or a variation of the word shows up eight times in the Quran. And it never means headscarf. And so what's happened is that the identity of a Muslim woman especially is being equated to this piece of cloth on her head. And in that ideology there's a very fundamental assumption that people need to think very deeply about, which is do you believe that a woman is too sexy for her hair?

  Asra Nomani

  Sexy, Believe, Mean

  "The Case Against Wearing Hijab To Support Muslim Women". "All Things Considered" with Ari Shapiro, www.npr.org. December 22, 2015.

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• Part of me has always resisted the Western clichéd image of Muslim women, depicting them as nothing more than silent victims. My art, without denying 'repression,' is a testimony to unspoken female power and the continuing protest in Islamic culture.

  Shirin Neshat

  Art, Women, Islamic

  Interview with Dorna Khazeni, www.believermag.com. August 2003.

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• We need spies that look like their targets, CIA officers who speak the dialects terrorists use, and FBI agents who can speak to Muslim women who might be intimidated by men.

  Jane Harman

  Men, Fbi Agents, Cia Agents

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• Muslim women had to go out in purdah, that heavy sheet that covers even the eyes. Hindu women had to go out in the doli, a kind of closed sedan chair like a catafalque. My mother always told me about these things with bitterness and rage.

  Indira Gandhi

  Mother, Eye, Bitterness

  Interview With Oriana Fallaci, sangam.org. December 24, 2014.

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• The Muslim women that I have met are super-powerful and amazing and smart and they are, they're not allowing themselves to be held back by the laws that exist. And you know, the Internet exists now, and mobile phones are freeing up stuff. I have a really good friend who's from Iran and a really good friend who's from Kuwait, and they talk about getting music on the black market and how that's such an intense, amazing experience. And how they value the music so much more, because it's such a risk to own it.

  Larkin Grimm

  Powerful, Smart, Good Friend

  "Swinging Modern Sounds #35: The Location Of The Soul". Interview with Rick Moody, therumpus.net. April 20, 2012.

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• Many times I have asked Muslim women not to nurture the victim mentality. stand up for your rights

  Tariq Ramadan

  Rights, Victim Mentality, Nurture

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• One of my brothers in my adopted family converted to Islam and I love him with all my heart. I have Muslim women who understand my pain and they give me lots of love and support. But what Black Americans never think about is that the African version of Islam is totally different from American Islam. They've never seen mothers doused in gasoline and set on fire for ’religious' reasons. So they don't know what I'm talking about.

  Kola Boof

  Mother, Religious, Brother

  "Kola Boof: Words with the Author of the Best Black Book of 2006". Interview with Kam Williams, aalbc.com.

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