Wala Sleem

“لا أريد من بشر أن يعين نفسه قيماً على بشر..وكل إنسان مسئول عن نفسه وله أن يعمل ما يُسعد به نفسه ما دام لا يُشقِي به غيره..نحن جميعاً نعرف أوامر السماء, ونعرف المعصية وغير المعصية..ونعرف كيف سنلقى الله وكيف سيلقانا الله..وكل إنسان يعرف أنه وحده سيتحمل وزر نفسه..فما بال أولئك البشر لا ينفكون يقيمون أنفسهم في إلحاح ولجاجة..وسطاء بيننا وبين السماء..يقيمون الحوائل والسدود ليزيدوا الأرض تعقيداً”
― يوسف السباعي

“اعلم أن الحياة لا تصلح بغير صلاة, وأن صلاتك لا تكون نافعة، إلا حينما تنسى أنك تصلي، وتتوجه بكليتك إلى روح الوجود في صرخة استنجاد واستغاثة ودهشة وإعجاب وحب وابتهال مأخوذ”
― مصطفى محمود, الخروج من التابوت

“على الإنسان أن يتعوّد .
يجب أن يتعوّد على كُل شيء :
البرد ، الوحدة ، الضجر ، وتراءت لي كلمة هزيمة
كدّت أقولها ، لكنْ غصّة أقربُ إلى يدٍ ثقيلة حزّت رقبتي .”
― عبد الرحمن منيف

“I was going to die, sooner or later, whether or not I had even spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you.... What are the words you do not yet have? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own need for language."

I began to ask each time: "What's the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?" Unlike women in other countries, our breaking silence is unlikely to have us jailed, "disappeared" or run off the road at night. Our speaking out will irritate some people, get us called bitchy or hypersensitive and disrupt some dinner parties. And then our speaking out will permit other women to speak, until laws are changed and lives are saved and the world is altered forever.

Next time, ask: What's the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it's personal. And the world won't end.

And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends and lovers, and realize you don't miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. And you will still flirt and paint your nails, dress up and party, because, as I think Emma Goldman said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution." And at last you'll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking.”
― Audre Lorde