“ Because my mother couldn't change my present, I decided to change my daughter's future Manal al-Sharif
“ When women break that taboo and they're not afraid to drive that car by herself - that's it. Now she has the guts to speak up for herself and take action. Manal al-Sharif
“ Women tell me they are different since 21 May - the day I was arrested - it's a positive change, they believe now. Manal al-Sharif
“ We were like captive animals that had lost the will to fight. We even went so far as to defend the very constraints that they hadimposed upon us. Manal al-Sharif
“ How odd it is that we judge a woman by her clothes and the place she eats lunch and the subjects she talks about with her colleagueson her coffee break, yet we don’t judge a man if he doesn’t grow his… Manal al-Sharif
“ She took my papers, the papers that had followed me from the Khobar police station to jail, and pointed at a place where I was supposed to sign. On the paper there was a line for charges. In the blank… Manal al-Sharif
“ So you’re the infamous Manal al-Sharif,” he said, eyeing me from behind his desk. “Aren’t you ashamed of what you did?”“Is driving a car something shameful?” I answered back. Manal al-Sharif
“ This is what happens when the state intervenes in a person’s private life; it creates two separate personas. It compels you either to lead two separate lives, or to violate what’s imposed on youwhen t… Manal al-Sharif
“ I got a text from my husband. “Manal, you are divorced,” it read. “Your papers are in the court of Khobar.” I was divorced in my absence, just as I had been married. Manal al-Sharif
“ I was lonely, desperate, and angry. At that moment, I truly understood what it meant to be a Saudi woman. It meant being confronted with every possible kind ofobstacle and discrimination. It meant bei… Manal al-Sharif
“ It is an amazing contradiction: a society that frowns on a woman going out without a man; that forces you to use separate entrances for universities, banks, restaurants, and mosques; that divides rest… Manal al-Sharif
“ Gradually, I realized that the ideas I had embraced and defended blindly all my life represented a singular, and highly radical, point of view. I began to question everything. Manal al-Sharif
