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Quote by Miriam Toews

“Our freedom and safety are the ultimate goals, and it is men who prevent us from achieving those goals. But not all men,... Perhaps not men, per se, but a pernicious ideology that has been allowed to take hold of the men's hearts and minds.”

Quote by Miriam Toews

Book:Women Talking
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Work

Women Talking

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Author

Miriam Toews
Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer known for her unique narrative style and profound insights into social issues. Her works often focus on religion, family, and social change, and have won her a wide readership. more

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“It is possible, she says, the men in prison are not guilty of the attacks. But are they guilty of not stopping the attacks? Are they guilty of knowing about the attacks and doing nothing?...How should we know what they're guilty of or not?...But we do know,... We do know that the conditions of Molotschna have been created by man, that these attacks have been made possible, even the conception of these acts, the planning of these attacks, the rationale for these attacks within the minds of the men, because of the circumstances of Molotschna. And those circumstances have been created and ordained by the men,...”

Feminism
Book:Women Talking
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“You light a fire early in your girlhood. You stoke it and tend it. You protect it at all costs. You don't let it rage into a mountain of light, because that's not becoming of a girl. You keep it secret. You let it burn. You look into the eyes of other girls and see their fires flickering there, offer conspiratorial nods, never speak aloud a near-unbearable heat, a growing conflagration. You tend the flame because if you don't you're stuck, in the cold, on your own, doomed to 'seasonal layers', doomed to 'practicality', doomed to 'this is just the way things are', doomed to 'settling' and 'understanding' and 'reasoning' and 'agreeing' and 'seeing it another way' and 'seeing it his way' and 'seeing it from all the other ways but your own'.”

FeminismFemale RageNightbitch
Book:Nightbitch
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“Here's what I think, Mr. Wind-Up Bird," said May Kasahara. "Everybody's born with some different thing at the core of their existence. And that thing, whatever it is, becomes like a heat source that runs each person from the inside. I have one too, of course. Like everybody else. But sometimes it gets out of hand. It swells or shrinks inside me, and it shakes me up. What I'd really like to do is find a way to communicate that feeling to another person. But I can't seem to do it. They just don't get it. Of course, the problem could be that I'm not explaining it very well, but I think it's because they're not listening very well. They pretend to be listening, but they're not, really. So I get worked up sometimes, and I do some crazy things.”

Life
Book:The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
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“I'd like to take what I know and just hand it over. But there is always a problem for a woman: being believed. How can I think I know something? How can I think that what I know might matter? Why would I think that anything I think might make a difference to anyone, anywhere?”

WritingKnowledgeFeminismCredibility
Book:Life and Death: Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War Against Women
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“We’ve lived long enough in the dark. We have an equal right to daylight, an equal right to learn and teach reason, science, art, and all the rest. Women, come on up out of the basement and the kitchen and the kids’ room; this whole house is our house. And men, it’s time you learned to live in that dark basement that you seem to be so afraid of, and the kitchen and the kids’ room too. And when you’ve done that, come on, let’s talk, all of us, around the hearth, in the living room of our shared house. We have a lot to tell each other, a lot to learn.”

FantasyFeminism
Book:Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016
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“ভারতের সর্বত্রই মেয়েদেরকে প্ররোচিত করা হয়েছে মাতৃকাশক্তির সঙ্গে নিজেদেরকে আইডেন্টিফাই করতে। কিন্তু দেবী হবার লোভ একটা বিরাট লোভ, একটা দুর্দান্ত নাগপাশ। এই লোভ যখন ভিতর থেকে মেয়েদেরকে একবার পেয়ে বসে, তখন তাদের বাইরের ইডিওলজি আর ভিতরের ইল্যুশন একেবারে একাকার হয়ে যায়। তখন তারা যাবতীয় অবিচার ও অত্যাচার সহ্য করতে পারে, সবরকমের আশাভঙ্গ ও ক্ষতিবোধকে সাবলিমেট করতে পারে, মেগালোমেনিয়াক দুঃসাহসে আগুনে পর্যন্ত ঝাঁপ দিতে পারে। এই দেবীবিলাস বাঙালী হিন্দু মেয়েদের সর্বনাশ করেছে : সিঁথির সিঁদুর আর কবজির শাঁখা থেকে পায়ের আলতা পর্যন্ত মাঙ্গলিক চিহ্ন ধারণ করে, গৃহের অধিষ্ঠাত্রী দেবী তথা পুরুষের গৃহলক্ষ্মী হয়ে, নিজেরা সাক্ষাৎ মা লক্ষ্মী সেজে, লক্ষ্মীপ্রতিমার সামনে গড় হয়ে পেন্নাম করে নিজেদের মনুষ্যত্বকে তারা জলাঞ্জলি দিয়েছে।”

FeminismIndiaHinduismBengaliBangla
Book:রবীন্দ্রনাথ ও ভিক্‌তোরিয়া ওকাম্পোর সন্ধানে
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