QuoteProject
A woman can walk miles without making one single step forward. As a child born in a harem, I instinctively knew that to live is to open closed doors. To live is to look outside. To live is to step out. Life is trespassing.
Fatema Mernissi
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the importance of exploration and breaking free from constraints to truly live.

Fatema Mernissi's quote reflects on the nature of life and growth, suggesting that simply existing within confines does not equate to truly living. It implies that to genuinely experience life, one must be willing to confront barriers and seek new horizons, highlighting the idea that living fully involves challenges and risks.

Themes

LifeExplorationGrowthFreedomCourage

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about personal growth and courage.

More from Fatema Mernissi

Now that Arab women are pouring into the streets by the million, men discover with dismay that they, not women, were the captives of the harem dream.
Fatema MernissiRead
To understand the fanatic rejection of women's liberation in the Muslim world, one has to take into account the time factor. Most of us educated women have illiterate mothers. The conservative wave against women in the Muslim world is a defense mechanism against profound changes in both sex roles and the touchy subject of sexual identity.
Fatema MernissiRead
Educated women armed with computers have defeated extremists by denying them a monopoly to define cultural identity and interpret religious texts. No extremist can say that women are inferior to men without being made a laughingstock on Al Jazeera. Islam insisted on equality between everyone.
Fatema MernissiRead
You find in the Koran hundreds of verses to support women's rights, and perhaps four or five that do not.
Fatema MernissiRead
If women's rights are a problem for some modern Muslim men, it is neither because of the Quran nor the Prophet, nor the Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with the interests of a male elite.
Fatema MernissiRead

Similar quotes

The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead
Saint John ChrysostomRead
As in everything else, I must start with myself. That is: in all circumstances try to be decent, just, tolerant, and understanding, and at the same time try to resist corruption and deception. In other words, I must do my utmost to act in harmony with my conscience and my better self.
Vaclav HavelRead
The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.
William JamesRead
Believe nothing,_x000D_ _x000D_ No matter where you read it,_x000D_ _x000D_ Or who has said it,_x000D_ _x000D_ Not even if I have said it,_x000D_ _x000D_ Unless it agrees with your own reason_x000D_ _x000D_ And your own common sense.
Gautama BuddhaRead
What if we discover that our present way of life is irreconcilable with our vocation to become fully human?
Paulo FreireRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.