Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Arundhati Roy

Quote by Arundhati Roy

“Whatever else their faults may be, they were not radical Islamist states - Iraq was not, Syria is not, Libya was not. The most radical fundamentalist Islamist state is, of course, your America's Saudi Arabia.”

Quote by Arundhati Roy

Create image

Author

Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is an Indian author best known for her novel 'The God of Small Things', which won the Booker Prize in 1997. Her works often explore social and political issues such as class, race, and gender. more

You May Also Like

“Anyway, what is a country? When people say, "Tell me about India," I say, "Which India?.... The land of poetry and mad rebellion? The one that produces haunting music and exquisite textiles? The one that invented the caste system and celebrates the genocide of Muslims and Sikhs and the lynching of Dalits? The country of dollar billionaires? Or the one in which 800 million live on less than half-a-dollar a day? Which India?"”

PeopleCountryHalfMillionsLandProduceIndiaMadDollarsCelebrateRebellionGenocideHauntingExquisiteBillionaireCastesLynchingCaste SystemTextiles
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“It's all a play. Hiroshima and Nagasaki happen, there are hundreds of thousands of dead, and the curtain comes down, and that's the end of that. Then Korea happens. Vietnam happens, all that happened in Latin America happens. And every now and then, this curtain comes down and history begins anew. New moralities and new indignations are manufactured...in a disappeared history.”

EndsPlayHappensAmericaHappenedMoralityDown AndLatinVietnamNow And ThenCurtainsKoreaLatin AmericaIndignationHiroshimaHiroshima And Nagasaki
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“There was a time when the women of Afghanistan - at least in Kabul - were out there. They were allowed to study, they were doctors and surgeons, walking free, wearing what they wanted. That was when it was under Soviet occupation. Then the United States starts funding the mujahideen. Reagan called them Afghanistan's "founding fathers." It reincarnates the idea of "jehad," virtually creates the Taliban.”

IdeasStatesWantedFatherUnitedUnited StatesStudyWalkingDoctorsOccupationAfghanistanSovietFoundingFundingSurgeonsTalibanKabulMujahideen
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“In Iraq, until before the war, the women were scientists, museum directors, doctors. I'm not valourising Saddam Hussein or the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which was brutal and killed hundreds of thousands of people - it was the Soviet Union's Vietnam. I'm just saying that now, in these new wars, whole countries have slipped into mayhem - the women have just been pushed back into their burqas - and not by choice.”

PeopleWarCountryWholeChoicesDirectorsDoctorsScientistUnionsIraqOccupationMuseumsAfghanistanVietnamSovietBrutalSoviet UnionSaddamHusseinJust SayingMayhemBurqa
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“In 2001, we were told that the war in Afghanistan was a feminist mission. The marines were liberating Afghan women from the Taliban. Can you really bomb feminism into a country? And now, after 25 years of brutal war - 10 years against the Soviet occupation, 15 years of US occupation - the Taliban is riding back to Kabul and will soon be back to doing business with the United States.”

YearsWarCountryStatesUnitedUnited StatesFeminismFeministMissionsBombsOccupationAfghanistanSovietRidingBrutalMarineLiberatingTalibanAfghanKabul
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image