Outspoken Quotes

“But there is so much more to our country – from the legacy of the Persian cultural and linguistic sphere to the acclaimed lattice Jali woodwork…Istalifi pottery and ceramiccs and calligraphy, even our beautiful carpets .”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“In recent years, the pride I’ve always felt in the heritage of my homeland has been stained by events that foretell a bleak future. To understand how we got here, we need to look at the root causes of Afghanistan’s struggles.”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“Because I call for justice and accountability, I have always been a target. As for who wants me dead, they likely came from both sides—the extremists as well as some people in positions of power.”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“If hope and optimism could be measured in facial expressions, the smiles and sparkling eyes in the room that day would have guaranteed our success”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“The suffering was over; the killing and bloodshed had stopped. Mind you, the poverty—even there, in the richest neighborhood of Kabul—was shocking: the children barefoot, their wounds and scars evidence of deprivation and the brutal past. But while their faces showed their malnourishment, their eyes glimmered with hope for a better future”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“In the intoxication of being twenty and swept up by my reading, I hoped to live in the light of day, in joy, refusing submission, shackles and conformity.”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“Mothers as brave as lionesses, poor Belcourt children, little Kabyles starving to death in 1939 – those people also earned the applause.”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“And he dreaded prison more than anything, not because survival in the gourbis was any
better, but because nothing would be more humiliating than being labeled a criminal. He had inherited a sense of honour that gave him – he, the poorest of the poor – the pride of a blind man and the humility of a prince.”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“They are staring at the photographer in perplexity. A few even wear naive smiles, as if forgetting the extreme poverty of the arid plains.”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“His treasure, among others, was the Kabylian language he had inherited. It had crossed centuries, bearing so many words with the sparkle of emeralds and rubies, which contempt for immigrants had reduced to a pile of stones.”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“In the woods near the château, it wasn’t unusual to see hedgehogs, especially early in the morning. They would curl up in a ball when I got too close. This reminded me of my father. He could get violently angry, sometimes even in public, but I could feel him curling up, out of fear.”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan