Rula Ghani Quotes

Religion does not require women to veil their hands, feet and faces or enjoin any special type of veil. Tribal custom must not impose itself on the free will of the individual

When I'm asked what my girls will think when they grow up, I'll tell them that they have to keep their clothes on till they're 40. But when they're 40, they can make their own decisions.

In some countries, women aren't allowed to wear a swimsuit.

If you meet a woman in a burqa, she can't reply to your smile. It's a denial of identity.

People say, 'You should let your hair out; you shouldn't be oppressed - you're not in Malaysia anymore. You should show your curves and be proud of it.' But I am proud - it's my choice to cover up my body. I'm not oppressed - I'm free.

I don't think my position unusual for a woman. I'm following a perfectly natural urge to do what I like.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not ashamed of my body, I just don't see any reason to not cover it up as much as possible. ... I'm someone who considered becoming a nun, for the outfit.

I believe that man is in the last resort so free a being that his right to be what he believes himself to be cannot be contested.

Just because I haven't yet had any project surgery, I'm not going to knock it, because I think women have the right to do whatever they want to their bodies that make them feel good about themselves.

I just think, as women, we have to give ourselves room to be individuals. So when a woman makes a decision for herself, we as women shouldn't set those hardcore boundaries for another woman. Just like we don't want men setting hardcore boundaries for us.

I don't really have an issue with showing certain parts of my body. I'd rather not, but it's not a big deal. Growing up in Sweden, it's natural over there.

A woman's body is her body and what she wears or does not wear is her choice. Get over it and move on.

The sanctity of a woman's right to control her own destiny is a moral force of its own... I came to realize that the question of choice is to be answered, not by the state, but by the individual.

You have to let individuals make their own choices and respect that, even if it's your own child. And that's what was taken away from me. My father passed away thinking I still had to go back to his way of believing.

No public official, no congressman, has the right to tell a woman what decision she must make and no congressman has the wisdom to dictate what is best for her.

A headscarf cannot be a political symbol…. If all political parties allowed women to wear a headscarf if they wanted, there would be no political symbol …. A woman who covers her head does so because of her beliefs not because of politics.

[Turkish women] had lived free of the veil for 5,000 years, and had been covered only in the last 600 years.

The beauty of being a feminist is that you get to be whatever you want. And that's the point.

Speaking as somebody with three sisters and a very largely female Muslim family, there is not a single woman I know in my family or in their friends who would have accepted the wearing of a veil.

The ideal feminist world shouldn't be one where women suppress their human instincts for attention and desire. We shouldn't be weighed down with the responsibility of explaining our every move. We shouldn't have to apologize for wanting attention, either. We don't owe anyone an explanation.

Some may want to be a homemaker and some want to follow other careers and they should be allowed. If we want to be different we should be different and we should be allowed to be different.

I was raised in a very Middle Eastern household, and modesty was very important, and dressing to not be desirable or provocative was very important.

Different women feel empowered in different ways, and it's not right to tell someone what they can and cannot do.

Before the '80s, no girl would ask to click a photograph. That was modest and demure.

A lot of people have the misconception that, as a Muslim woman, I am somehow against women wearing bikinis. No, I want women to feel comfortable and confident in whatever they wear.