For many, the hijab represents modesty, piety and devotion to God, and I truly respect that. But the hijab should not be used as a means of applying social pressure on people.
It is all too easy to draw conclusions and make sweeping judgments about millions of Muslim women based on fleeting television images. That is not right.
I work in areas related to child protection and family safety, women’s empowerment, the creation of opportunities for youth, and culture and tourism. Daunting? Yes. Impossible? No. In fact, such challenges energize me.
I don’t believe that there is fair enough understanding of either our status as women or the total context of our lives, which is very rich and multi-faceted.
We look at problems happening halfway across the world and we think, ‘Well, that’s their problem.’ But it’s not. … When you solve somebody else’s problem, you’re solving a problem for yourself because our world today is so interconnected.
