Quotes from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“Life isn’t like the movies. People don’t change overnight. people don’t go from arrogant and self-righteous to ashamed and remorseful. They don’t suddenly give in when they’ve spent years taking out. No doesn’t magically become a Yes.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“Sometimes it's easy to lose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“I want to be with one person in my life. I want to know that the guy I spend the rest of my life with is the first person I share something so intimate and exciting with.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“That’s when this warm feeling buzzes through you and you smile to yourself, knowing God’s watching you, knowing that He knows you’re trying to be strong to please Him.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“Yeah, don't you take a break?'
'I don't have time for breaks.'
'That's the whole point of a break. When you've got no time, you need a break.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“Parents. Honestly. Sometimes they really do think the world revolves around them.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“Everything is relative. If you want to understand a problem you look at its cause. You don’t look at its manifestation.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“And it’s when I’m standing there this morning, in my PJs and a hijab, next to my mum and my dad, kneeling before God, that I feel a strange sense of calm. I feel like nothing can hurt me, and nothing else matters.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“there is more to this hijab than the whole modesty thing. These girls are strangers to me but I know that we all felt an amazing connection, a sense that this cloth binds us in some kind of universal sisterhood.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“It's like one of those scenes from a feel-good Hollywood movie. Where everybody is happy and nobody's hair fizzes in the wind. Where it doesn't rain, your shoes stay comfortable all day, and everybody's jokes are funny.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“همه این مدت با این فکر سر می کردم که پرهیزکار شدم,چون تصمیمی به سختی پوشیدن حجاب گرفته ام...اما چه فایده ای دارد که در ظاهر دین داری کنی,وقتی درونت را تغییر نداده باشی, آن هم وقتی که واقعا مهم است که این کار را بکنی? این مدت با خودم شوخی می کرده ام.پوشیدن حجاب آخر این سفر نیست. اول آن است.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“Yes, Simone, he is mentally unstable for being attracted to you. call the men in white suits.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“Too many people look at it as though it (the hijab) has bizarre powers sewn into its microfibers. Powers that transform Muslim girls into UCOs (Unidentified Covered Objects), which turn Muslim girls from an 'us' to a 'them.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“You? Nervous? Man, you've got more balls than any girl I've ever known!'

'You've known some weird girls, then," I say, raising an eyebrow at him.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“Your perception is riveting, Amal," he says in a bored and sarcastic tone, dropping the note down on my desk. "It's comforting to know that there are people in my class who have the maturity and intelligence to make derogatory comments about other people's external appearances."

Now what am I supposed to say to that?

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

Friggin' mind reader.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“Are you still doing that crap?" I ask.

"You can't even do it properly," Eileen says.

"Just a matter of practice," Simone says.

"Wow! Practicing how to poison yourself and make your breath reek like the fart of a seagull!" Eileen cries.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“I just don't know what I'd do without a brain, Simone!" I say. "I mean, what's a person without one?”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“تا حالا نفهمیده بودم که حجاب چیزی بیشتر از پاکدامنی هم دارد. ...این لباس ما را در یک خواهری ِ جهانی به همدیگر پیوند می دهد.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“می توانستیم نماز بخوانیم و روزه بگیریم و حجاب بپوشیم بدون اینکه جواب پس بدهیم و از خودمان در مقابل سرتیتر های خبری دفاع کنیم...با همدیگر زد و. خورد کنیم و بدون اینکه پیشوندی برای تروریسم و اکستریمیسم یا هر ایسم دیگری باشیم، سر غذا برویم”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

“ملحد بودن من یه سال طول کشید. به هر جهت غمگین بودم. احساس پوچی می کردم... بعد یه روز توی کالج شنیدم که یه دختر دانشجو کشته شده. برای من اصلاً قابل تصور نبود که اون غولی که جنازه اون دختر دانشجو رو کنار خیابون ول کرده، هیچ وقت قرار نباشه حساب پس بده. بی خدایی جواب نمی داد.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, quote from Does My Head Look Big in This?

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