Shereen El Feki Quotes & Sayings

“If you really want to know yourself, start by writing a book.”

“My mother's family is Christian: her father was a Baptist lay preacher, and her brother, in a leap of Anglican upward mobility, became a vicar in the Church of Wales. But my mother converted to Islam on marrying my father. She was not obliged to; Muslim men are free to marry ahl al-kitab, or people of the Book - among them, Jews and Christians.”

“HIV brings out the best and the worst in humanity, and the laws reflect these attitudes.”

“I'm half Egyptian, and I'm Muslim. But I grew up in Canada, far from my Arab roots. Like so many who straddle East and West, I've been drawn, over the years, to try to better understand my origins.”

“Laws that treat people living with HIV or those at greatest risk with respect start with the way that we treat them ourselves: as equals. If we are going to stop the spread of HIV in our lifetime, then that is the change we need to spread.”

“Civil society must be strengthened to help raise awareness among people living with HIV, and those at risk, of their rights, and to ensure they have access to legal services and redress through the courts.”

“Some countries have good laws, laws which could stem the tide of HIV. The problem is that these laws are flouted. Because stigma gives unofficial license to treat people living with HIV or those at greatest risk unlike other citizens.”

“The patriarchy is alive and well in Egypt and the wider Arab world.”

“Throughout its history, Islam has borrowed and adapted from other civilizations, both ancient and modern.”

“Where you criminalize people living with HIV or those at greatest risk, you fuel the epidemic.”