"Does the woman who escapes from you, or approaches you lowering the veil over her face, or turns her back on you, confirm your high status, as she might think and say and you might think and say, or is it a great insult? Does this constitute the woman's decorum, chastity, and modesty? If so, then men should wear veils and let them meet each other and meet women lowering veils over their faces the way women do."
Nazira Zain al-Din (writer)

"Together we as women of this country,
must stand in one voice for our freedom and our survival."
A Lebanese great grandmother

"In country after country women have demonstrated that when given the tools of opportunity
-education, health care, access to credit, political participation and legal rights-
they can lift themselves out of poverty, and as women realize their potential,
they lift their families, communities and nations as well..."
Hillary Rodham Clinton

"By the turn of the century, one out of every three Syrians who entered the United States was female...
Women, like men, must have been tempted by the sheer adventure of crossing the ocean and seeing America with their own eyes."
Evelyn Shakir, "Bint Arab"

Then almitra spoke again and said,
And what of Marriage, Master?
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, You shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you,
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shore of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone, though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
Khalil Gibran, "The Prophet"