“We learned at an early age that it was men’s interpretation of our religion that restricted women’s opportunities, not our religion itself. Islam in fact had been quite progressive toward women from its inception.”

I was brought up to believe that human beings are good, which is why it shocks me to the core when I see human beings behaving badly.

I found that a whole series of people opposed me simply on the grounds that I was a woman.

Pakistans future viability, stability and security lie in empowering its people and building political institutions.

Being in jail is difficult too because it’s like being in a graveyard, you can’t do much.

I find that whenever I am in power, or my father was in power, somehow good things happen. The economy picks up, we have good rains, water comes, people have crops. I think the reason this happens is that we want to give love and we receive love.

All our problems, all our disputes, all our disagreements can be resolved quickly to mutual satisfaction if we address the question.

Purusing peace means rising above one’s own wants, needs, and emotions.

Democracy is the best revenge. After Benazir Bhutto’s death, her son’s brief public remarks were captured on video, and they were reported in international newspapers. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced, “My mother always said, ‘ Democracy is the best revenge.

No, I am not pregnant. I am fat. And, as the Prime Minister, its my right to be fat if I want to.

My goal is to prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a generation can be accomplished only under democracy.

Democracy is necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism.

Whatever my aims and agendas were, I never asked for power.

It is one thing being able to contest an election and to give the people hope that I can be the next prime minister. It is a totally different situation where the people of Pakistan are told that the results are already taken and the leader of your choice is banned.

The Orange Revolution in Ukraine is a good example of how people, who are robbed of their right to vote, can protest and put an end to dictatorship.

Democracy is the best revenge.

It’s quite difficult for me not to be able to return to my country, but in my country justice has been murdered.

Democracy is a hegemonic tool of the West and contrary to Islam. Why do you act as though the entire world needs democracy? And when it comes to homosexuality, the issue is clearly dealt with by the Koran. It says it is forbidden and should be punished.

Establishing an equilibrium between the Islam of truth and Islam as an identity is one of the most difficult tasks of religious intellectuals.

Islam never tells people to go out and kill other people.

I think that hijacks the spirituality and beauty that exists within Islam. I believe in allowing Islam to be seen in context and in its entirety and being judged on what it really is, not what you think it is.

I think Islam has been hijacked by the idea that all Muslims are terrorists; that Islam is about hate, about war, about jihad

The idea that I had anything to do with speaking about Islam or about the Muslim world was just absurd to my family. … I hadn’t been to the mosque in like 10 years.

In prison I had the opportunity to debate and discuss people that had subscribed to all forms of Islamism.

It’s not always the case that Muslims have been theocrats.