I Was A Little Girl

I Met Indira Gandhi In Her Office In The Government Palace. The Same Office That Had Been Her Father's - Large, Cold And Plain. She Was Sitting, Small And Slender, Behind A Bare Desk. When I Entered, She Got Up And Came Forward To Give Me Her Hand, Then Sat Down Again And Cut The Preliminaries Short By Fixing Me With A Gaze That Meant: Go Ahead With The First Question, Don't Waste Time, I Really Have No Time To Waste.

I Am Disgusted By The Anti-semitism Of Many Italians, Of Many Europeans.

The Muslims Refuse Our Culture And Try To Impose Their Culture On Us. I Reject Them, And This Is Not Only My Duty Toward My Culture-it Is Toward My Values, My Principles, My Civilization.

In The Legends That Males Have Invented To Explain Life, The First Human Creature Is A Man Named Adam. Eve Arrives Later, To Give Him Pleasure And Cause Trouble. In The Paintings That Adorn Churches, God Is An Old Man With A Beard, Never An Old Woman With White Hair. And All The Heroes Are Males: From Prometheus Who Discovered Fire To Icarus Who Tried To Fly, On Down To Jesus Whom They Call The Son Of God And Of The Holy Spirit, Almost As Though The Woman Giving Birth To Him Were An Incubator Or A Wetnurse.

Whether It Comes From A Despotic Sovereign Or An Elected President, From A Murderous General Or A Beloved Leader, I See Power As An Inhuman And Hateful Phenomenon.