I got a text from my husband. “Manal, you are divorced,” it read. “Your papers are in the court of Khobar.” I was divorced in my absence, just as I had been married.

~ Manal Al-Sharif

Manal Al-Sharif Discrimination Divorce Extremism Manal Al Sharif Marriage Patriarchy Salafi Saudi Arabia Saudi Men Saudi Women Text Message Wahabi Women Emnacipation Women S Rights

Gradually, I realized that the ideas I had embraced and defended blindly all my life represented a singular, and highly radical, point of view. I began to question everything.

~ Manal Al-Sharif

Manal Al-Sharif Extremism Islam Questioning Radical Islam Radicalism Salafi Wahabi

And while it’s nice of you to want to call us ‘modern’ or ‘moderate,’ we’ll do without the redundancy. Islam is by definition moderate, so the more strictly we adhere to its fundamentals — the more moderate we’ll be. And Islam is by nature timeless and universal, so if we’re truly Islamic — we’ll always be modern.We’re not ‘Progressives’; we’re not ‘Conservatives’. We’re not ‘neo-Salafi’; we’re not ‘Islamists’. We’re not ‘Traditionalists’; we’re not ‘Wahabis’. We’re not ‘Immigrants’ and we’re not ‘Indigenous’. Thanks, but we’ll do without your prefix.We’re just Muslim.

~ Yasmin Mogahed

Yasmin Mogahed Conservative Imigrants Islam Modernism Muslim Progressive Salafi Traditional Wahabi