Gillian Slovo

““ask questions that they might not be asking of themselves” because as she says,”

““When you write a memoir you have to think about your responsibility to your audience that you’d be completely honest, and to people in your life. Your honesty is going to affect them.””

“it appears that the appeal is not so much the religious rhetoric but the promise of an alternative to capitalism.”

“The problem is that it’s all fake because they only respect women’s bodies by restricting them to the house and forcing them to cover up, which is not the same as someone choosing to cover up.””

“Anyone feeling vulnerable can feel attracted to the “idealistic world”

““In the same way, one of the things in common from these very different people who went to Islamic State is the feeling that they don’t know where they belong, they are looking for a sense of belonging and they wrongly think they will only find that in this mythical caliphate that they think has been established.””

““If our response is to stop people in our societies from saying things they don’t want us to say, we are falling into their trap”

““The actions of al-Qaeda or Islamic State can force our governments, and some of us, to give up on some of the hard-won democratic rights which is what makes us different from them. I’m talking about all sorts of things, freedom of expression being one of the most important ones.””

“The consequences of marginalizing people on the basis of what they wear or what they say is very dangerous.”

“[On being exiled in London in 1964, aged 12] I was a white South African kid who came from a lot of stress, given that my father had disappeared and we didn't know where he was, and my mother had been in prison. It was a relief to be in England but I had never taken a bus on my own. To learn to find my own way was quite a difficult thing to do.”