I am always revolted when Islamic leaders, from Afghanistan or elsewhere, deny the very existence of female oppression, avoid the issue by pointing to examples of what they view as Western mistreatment of women, or even worse, justify the oppression of women on the basis of notions derived from Sharia law.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes Islamic leaders who deny female oppression while justifying it through cultural or religious arguments.
Khaled Hosseini expresses his disgust at leaders in the Islamic world who refuse to acknowledge the oppression faced by women. He highlights the hypocrisy in their arguments, which either deflect responsibility by referencing Western mistreatment or attempt to justify oppressive practices through interpretations of Sharia law, thus ignoring the very real suffering experienced by women.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech advocating for women's rights in Islamic countries.
You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.
There was brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that even time could not break. - Amir
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The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.
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When you single out any particular group of people for secondary citizenship status, that's a violation of basic human rights.
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world ... Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.
While the One Child Policy has been effective in drastically reducing Chinese birth rates, the measures adopted in its name have required exhaustive, violent, insidious and systemic violations of human rights.
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