There has been a terrible hemorrhage of educated women to the West where they can flourish. I understand, but it is terrible. We must stay home. Fatema Mernissi More Quotes by Fatema Mernissi More Quotes From Fatema Mernissi The most precious gift God gave humans is reason. Its best use is the search for knowledge. To know the human environment, to know the earth and galaxies, is to know God. Knowledge (science) is the best form of prayer. Fatema Mernissi use prayer religion The real mistake of women was to let the memoir, the collective, the history, space of producing history - to let it in the hands of men. Fatema Mernissi real mistake men By putting the spotlight on the female child and framing her as the ideal of beauty, he condemns the mature woman to invisibility. In fact, the modern Western man enforces Immanuel Kant's nineteenth-century theories: To be beautiful, women have to appear childish and brainless. When a woman looks mature and self-assertive, or allows her hips to expand, she is condemned ugly. Thus, the walls of the European harem separate youthful beauty from ugly maturity. Fatema Mernissi wall beautiful children Writing is one of the most ancient forms of prayer. To write is to believe communication is possible that other people are good, that you can awaken their generosity and their desire to do better. Fatema Mernissi communication prayer believe One cannot understand what's happening to women in the Middle East if they don't realize that the mothers are a strong, progressive force. The mothers push the daughters to get out of the harem, to get the education, to achieve what they could not even dream of. Fatema Mernissi daughter mother dream Nature is woman's best friend,' she [Yasmina] often said. 'If you're having troubles, you just swim in the water, stretch out in a field, or look up at the stars. That's how a woman cures her fears'. Fatema Mernissi stars nature water I, as a Muslim woman living in 1993, I want to have two things - the mosque and the satellite, both at the same time. And no one can mutilate me by telling me I cannot have the mosque or the Koran. Fatema Mernissi mosques want two Being frozen into the passive position of an object whose very existence depends on the eye of its beholder turn the educated modern Western women into a harem slave. Fatema Mernissi frozen slave eye I am intelligent enough to be critical towards the West and take what I need and reject what is bad for me. Fatema Mernissi intelligent west needs Maturity is when you start feeling the motion of zaman (time) as if it is a sensuous caress. p.216 Fatema Mernissi caress maturity feelings Morocco is such a beautiful place. It's incredibly beautiful. And also it is captivating place because for a writer, you feel that you make impact. Fatema Mernissi morocco impact beautiful Pessimism is the luxury of the powerful. Fatema Mernissi pessimism luxury powerful Someone else is going to read for me or go at my place to the mosque, and/or to tell me you shouldn't take anything from the West because the West is the enemy and so on. It is to me to decide. Fatema Mernissi mosques west enemy Morocco is such a beautiful place. It's incredibly beautiful. And also it is captivating place because for a writer, you feel that you make impact. I mean, when I write something in the press, the day after in the fish market, people will be discussing it. Fatema Mernissi day you beautiful people Since all power from the seventh century on was only legitimated by religion, political forces and economic interests pushed for the fabrication of false traditions. Fatema Mernissi economic political power religion If women's rights are a problem for some modern Muslim men, it is neither because of the Quran nor the Prophet, nor the Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with the interests of a male elite. Fatema Mernissi women conflict tradition men Consumerist ads brainwash us into individualist and egotistic self-love. Fatema Mernissi individualist self-love us ads The woman with dark hair, wide hips, and a few extra pounds has always been the essence of beauty in Morocco. Fatema Mernissi woman dark hair beauty To me, the Quran is a research book. Fatema Mernissi me research book A woman can walk miles without making one single step forward. As a child born in a harem, I instinctively knew that to live is to open closed doors. To live is to look outside. To live is to step out. Life is trespassing. Fatema Mernissi woman walk look life