#la

It is fascinating to watch legislators turn away from their usual corporate grips when they hear the growing thunder of the people. ↗

— Ralph Nader

#corporate #fascinating #grips #growing #hear

No presidential candidate should visit Las Vegas without condemning organized gambling. ↗

— Ralph Nader

#condemning #gambling #las #las vegas #organized

I don't like to play characters that are too perfect. ↗

— Amanda Seyfried

#i #like #perfect #play #too

Those in the west who dismiss the repressiveness of laws against women in countries like Iran, no matter how benign their intentions, present a condescending view not just of the religion but also of women living in Muslim majority countries, as if the desire for choice and happiness is the monopoly of women in the west. ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#also #benign #choice #condescending #countries

This is a good time to ask apologists for the Islamic regime, who degrades Islam? Who imposes stoning, forced marriage of underage girls and flogging for not wearing the veil? Do such practices represent Iran's ancient history and culture, its ethnic and religious diversity? Its centuries of sensual and subversive poetry? ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#apologists #ask #centuries #culture #degrades

Basically, fundamentalism is a modern phenomenon. In the same way that Hitler evoked a mythological religion of German purity and the glory of the past, the Islamists use religion to evoke emotions and passions in people who have been oppressed for a long time in order to reach their purpose. ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#been #emotions #evoke #fundamentalism #german

For more than 30 years the Islamic regime and its apologists have tried to dismiss women's struggle in Iran as part of a western ploy. ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#dismiss #iran #islamic #more #part

I finally returned to Iran in 1979, when I got my degree in English and American literature, and stayed for 18 years in the Islamic republic. ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#american literature #degree #english #finally #got

In the past 30 years, officials of the Iranian regime and its apologists have labeled criticism, especially with regard to women's rights, as anti-Islamic and pro-Western, justifying its brutalities by ascribing them to Islam and Iran's culture. ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#criticism #culture #especially #in the past #iran

The spread of civilisation may be likened to a fire; first, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power. ↗

— Nikola Tesla

#civilisation #ever #feeble #fire #first