Jenny (Reading Envy)

“Those sorts of stories accumulated until they formed an archetype: the tragic yet resilient Iraqi woman, a metaphor for the country itself. In hindsight, it seems so facile to see Iraqi women only through the prism of their war-ravaged lives, but how else do you report a story where pain is etched on the face of every woman you interview?”
― Zahra Hankir, Our Women on the Ground: Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World

“The old love was slowly metamorphosed into admiration, just as his physical longing for her (so bitter at first) turned into a consuming and depersonalized tenderness which fed upon her absence instead of dying from it.”
― Lawrence Durrell, Mountolive

“That day, I came to a stark realization. I was afraid of men, and the harder I fought, the more intense the fear became. I can't think of an experience that is more harrowing than a woman being sexually harassed or assaulted by a man.”
― Zahra Hankir, Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World

“How many times have we tried to stand up fully only for them to tell us that we're being violent for just trying to be whole, that our attempted wholeness was hurting them? They've lied to us for such a long time. And I think when we've been taught to be afraid of ourselves in such ways, we absorb some of our teachers' fear.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir