Tahera Haque

“The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Happiness, she would explain, was when a person felt good, light, creative, content, loving and loved, and free. An unhappy person felt as if there were barriers crushing her desires and the talents she had inside. A happy woman was one who could exercise all kinds of rights, from the right to move to the right to create, compete, and challenge, and at the same time could be loved for doing so. Part of happiness was to be loved by a man who enjoyed your strength and was proud of your talents. Happiness was also about the right to privacy, the right to retreat from the company of others and plunge into contemplative solitude. Or sit by yourself doing nothing for a whole day, and not give excuses or feel guilty about it either. Happiness was to be with loved ones, and yet still feel that you existed as a separate being, that ou were not just there to make them happy. Happiness was when there was a balance between what you gave and what you took.”
― Fatima Mernissi, Dreams Of Trespass: Tales Of A Harem Girlhood

“শিকল দিয়ে কাউকেই বেঁধে রাখা হয় না । তারপরেও সব মানুষই কোনও - না - কোনও সময় অনুভব করে তার হাত - পায়ে কঠিন শিকল । শিকল ভাঙতে গিয়ে সংসার - বিরাগী গভীর রাতে গৃহত্যাগ করে । ভাবে ,মুক্তি পাওয়া গেল । দশতলা বাড়ির ছাদ থেকে গৃহী মানুষ লাফিয়ে পরে ফুটপাতে । এরা ক্ষণিকের জন্য শিকল ভাঙার তৃপ্তি পায় ।”
― Humayun Ahmed, মৃন্ময়ী

“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'.”
― Fatima Mernissi, Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood