Azar Nafisi Quotes

When I see somebody being mistreated, my eyes tear up and I want to stop it. And I believe that the best thing I can do is to write about it, because if I insert myself into the equation it doesn't really do much good, but if I write about it I think it could do more good.

Use your knowledge, and your heart, to stand up for those who can't stand, speak for those who can't speak, be a beacon of light for those whose lives have become dark.

You can only watch injustice go on for so long until you're compelled to say something. To speak out against it.

The cry of the oppressed has entered not only into my ears, but into my soul, so that while I live, I cannot hold my peace.

To throw oneself to the side of the oppressed is the only dignified thing to do in life.

Let's resolve to never be a bystander in the fight for human dignity

Maybe it's because my uncle and my parents were always very involved with the civil rights movement, so I just grew up and I was raised that you have to speak out and look out for your fellow man, woman, and child.

There are people who can look out for other human beings; there are people who can speak up when something is not right and say, 'This is wrong, and something should be done.'

We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters.

If people are being downtrodden and mistreated, it's our obligation, it's our responsibility to speak out, not just for ourselves but for others.

It is the least represented among us who will be the most affected first. We have a moral responsibility to protect them.

But love must be aggressively translated into simple justice.

I just feel like if I really believe what Dr. King said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,' then I should be compelled to use my God-given platform to effect change.

I am passionate about human rights.

It is only through such real-life daily struggles and challenges that a genuine sensitivity to human rights can be inculcated. This is a truth that is not limited to school education: it applies to all of us.

While I drew, and wept along with the terrified children I was drawing, I really felt the burden I am bearing. I felt that I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate.

It is the duty of man to raise up man.

Black men of integrity cannot make a deal with a politician and leave out the poor of the nation, all God's children.

I think more tolerance, more people having more access to a chance to be literate, and a chance to stay healthy makes for a more peaceful planet.

And my approach has always been to stand up and speak out on behalf of the economic rights of people.

Everyone suffers some injustice in life, and what better motivation than to help others not suffer in the same way.

I think when I started going to war zones and started covering humanitarian issues, it became a calling because I realized I had a voice, and I can give people without a voice a voice... and now it is something that sits inside of me every day.

I'm not an activist; I don't look for controversy. I'm not a political person, but I'm a person with compassion. I care passionately about equal rights. I care about human rights. I care about animal rights.

In any human-rights campaign, everybody must do what they can.

I promised never to let the Rwandan Genocide die because I knew the Rwandans didn't have much power internationally and certainly didn't have the resources. I felt it was my duty having witnessed it, and having stayed to witness it, that I had to talk about it and keep it going.