Manal al-Sharif

“For me, driving - or the right to drive - is not only about moving from A to B; it's a way to emancipate women. It gives them so much liberty. It makes them independent.”

“When I see something wrong, I speak up.”

“I love my sons, I love my husband, and I love my country. But in kingdoms of men, there are few - if any - choices for women. Or the choices are such that there is no greater pain than having to choose.”

“All I did was ask for rights. I didn't attack anyone. I didn't harass anyone. I didn't oppose the system or the country or the authority. All I said is, 'Why can't I drive?'”

“In Saudi Arabia, they always tell us we are queens. We are pistachios. You know the nut? Like something that is protected. So even if you have a very good education, restraints are put on women.”

“I almost got kidnapped trying to find a taxi in the street. In Saudi Arabia, it's not normal for a woman to walk in the street alone, and I don't cover my face, so I am an open target.”

“The Saudi ideal of a woman is a religious mother who rarely ventures out: She shouldn't work with men, she should be completely covered, and she shouldn't go out alone to run errands.”

“I'm a normal woman, a normal person, and I just want to drive.”

“In May 2011, I drove a car in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, to protest the kingdom's ban on women driving.”

“Women want to drive and they are taking actual steps towards that.”

“I realised it is impossible to live with the rules they give Saudi women. Just impossible. You trying to do everything by the book, but you can never stay pure.”

“For us, driving is not what we are looking for, but being in the driver's seat of our only destiny. That means ending guardianship in Saudi Arabia, which means recognizing women as full citizens.”

“Women's rights are nothing but a part of the bigger picture, which is human rights. Women are trusted with the lives of their kids, even serve as teachers and doctors, but they aren't trusted with their own lives.”

“That is life for a Saudi woman: wherever we go, whatever we achieve, we are the property of a man.”

“I'm just a human being who would not accept being wronged.”

“When you see corruption, when you see injustice, you speak up. You don't just shut up and say it's none of my business.”

“My message to the world is to surrender your ego: try not to think that you are not as fortunate as some people or inferior or not as good as someone else.”

“I went to a technology conference in Germany, and there were these beautiful, model-like women standing there in front of the products. I asked a question, and she had no clue what the product was. She had to call someone from the back to explain it to me. To me, that's using a woman as an object. To me, that's totally wrong.”

“It took me a long, long time to break the chains that's inside me.”

“My mother gave birth to me on the floor of our apartment in Mecca with only my toddler sister to help her because my father was at work and no male guardian was available to take her to a hospital.”