Arab Society Quotes

“… he (the husband) would stand over her head and tell her there was no place else for her to go, no one wanted her and no one was coming for her rescue.
Do you have any idea how bleak, how hopeless and terminal it sounds and feels to be at that point? I got chills just writing about it…”
― Fatima Mohammed, Higher Heels, Bigger Dreams

“Certainly, blame for all this [turmoil in the Middle East] doesn't rest solely with the terrible decisions that were made at the end of World War I, but it was then that one particularly toxic seed was planted. Ever since, Arab society has tended to define itself less by what it aspires to become than by what it is opposed to: colonialism, Zionism, Western imperialism in its many forms. This culture of opposition has been manipulated—indeed, feverishly nurtured—by generations of Arab dictators intent on channeling their people's anger away from their own misrule in favor of the external threat, whether it is "the great Satan" or the "illegitimate Zionist entity" or Western music playing on the streets of Cairo.”
― Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East

“Domestic violence has often gone unnamed and unblamed in my society. It is the norm for men to teach their wives a lesson, and for the women to bear that beating and teaching with no complaints.”
― Fatima Mohammed, Higher Heels, Bigger Dreams

“I have come to this world, an Arab Algerian, with a heavy load that only became heavier as I grew older and I had to carry all my life. To be born a girl in a country and a society like mine is a mistake in the first place; why? People want boys! How do I know? I was born on the 7th of September, and up to this day my birth certificate says 11th.”
― Fatima Mohammed, Higher Heels, Bigger Dreams