Mohja Kahf > Quotes

“All women speak two languages:

the language of men

and the language of silent suffering.

Some women speak a third,

the language of queens.”
― Mohja Kahf, E-mails from Scheherazad

“My arrogance knows no bounds
And I will make no peace today
And you shall be so lucky
To find a woman like me


Today neither will the East claim me
nor the West admit me
Today my belly is a well
wherein serpents are coiled
ready to poison the world,
and you should be so lucky.


All I have is my arrogance
I will teach it to lean back
and smoke a cigarette in your faces,
and you should be so lucky


No I will make no peace
even though my hands are empty
I will talk as big as I please
I will be all or nothing
And I will jump before the heavy trucks
And I will saw off my leg at the thigh
before I bend one womanly knee


I am poison
And you will drink me
And you should be so lucky.”
― Mohja Kahf

“I'm not defending their views. I'm defending their right to have their views. There's a difference.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“Generally speaking, Americans cussed, smoke, and drank, and the Shamys had it on good authority that a fair number of them used drugs. Americans dated and fornicated and committed adultery. They had broken families and lots of divorces. Americans were not generous or hospitable like Uncle Abdulla and Aunt Fatma; they invited people to their houses only a few at a times, and didn't even let them bring their children, and only fed them little tiny portions of food they called courses on big empty plates they called good china. Plus, Americans ate out wastefully often...

Americans believed the individual was more important than the family, and money was more important than anything. Khadra's dad said Americans threw out their sons and daughters when they turned eighteen unless they could pay rent--to their own parents! And, at the other end, they threw their parents into nursing homes when they got old. This, although they took slavish care of mere dogs. All in all, Americans led shallow, wasteful, materialistic lives.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“One time her father told her Shakespeare was really an Arab. 'Just look at his name: It's an Anglicization of Sheikh Zubayr,' he said with a straight face.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“I cannot operate from fear anymore.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“That's Pete Seeger,' Joy said, indicating the snake with a nod. 'Baker beaned 'im, Dad stuffed 'im, and I named 'im.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“And together they did eat of the candy corn. And it was good.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“You do not know your own beauty, you struggle in grief, but I, I have seen it all, and I know: You yourself are the secret essence.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“Juma: I'm not a woman--I don't know HOW to cook!
Khadra: Well, it didn't come with my BOOBS!”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“Here was an exposure, her soul an unmarked sheet shadowing into distinct shapes under the fluids. Fresh film. Her self, developing.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“...Her eyes sparkle like she's about to cartwheel through a mosque.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“For in song lies the mystery of Being.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“Peeling an eggplant was like unveiling an ivory-skinned woman dressed all in black.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“A treasure that fire cannot eat. my little secret. I've carried them wrapped in a handkerchief in my bosom through some tight places. Not for nothing do Shamy girls have good boobs.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“Yes, I carry explosives
They're called words”
― Mohja Kahf

“You who came of age in the past decade have had eight years of a Black U.S. president, and that gloss looked good, and there were even a few inches gained on some issues such as health care, and maybe that can cause a person to relax a bit. But think of how exponentially drone attacks increased under Obama, how many Black people were shot by police under Obama, because the violence is systemic. How many of the people now hearteningly pledging to sign up for a Muslim registry signed up for a Black Lives Matter or protested the discriminatory immigration program NSEERS? The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System subjected my students from the Middle East to hours of interrogation and intimidation every time they reentered after going home to visit their families, arbitrarily barred tons of innocent people from entry, and was ineffective against terrorism anyway. It's systemic injustice we are after changing, and we should not ever be lulled.”
― Mohja Kahf, Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times

“Obey, obey, obey
-obey what?
My body catching this wind is obeying
the pulse of the breathtaking Divine.
You, canoeing those rapids, are breaking
into the spray of larger, unseen Waves.”
― Mohja Kahf, E-mails from Scheherazad

“You knew you were an Arab if your ride form the airport was two dozen people.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“And here's one reminder: avoid filling your life with "nice" people who find racism invisible or who second-guess your every instinct on it while indulging in liberal hand-wringing, because eventually, this will drain your inner resources. Seek out people who are "woke" - tel me if I just used a hip word correctly?”
― Mohja Kahf, Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times

“[He] [w]ent deep into the cave where wounded men go when they walk around not talking to anyone about what's happening to them on the inside. Also known as Terre Haute.”
― Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

“The longest exile is exile of the heart
The only passage for return is love”
― Mohja Kahf, E-mails from Scheherazad

“Here are the long-awaited evenings
Here you are. Here am I.
Your face
the orizon
I want to see”
― Mohja Kahf, E-mails from Scheherazad

“L'esilio più lungo è l'esilio del cuore
L'unico passaggio per il ritorno è l'amore”
― Mohja Kahf, E-mails from Scheherazad