"If we lived together without getting married, my parents would stop speaking to me, at least for a while. People would inevitably find out about us, and all my work in Pakistan would go up in flames. …"

"When I was in Birmingham, my dad treated our house like an art museum and me like the signature piece in the collection. When I was alone, I unraveled—because the hardest thing to be was myself."

"We liked to be known as the clever girls. When we decorated our hands with henna for holidays and weddings, we drew calculus and chemical formulae instead of flowers and butterflies."

"I believe in the power of education to change the world."

"In Pakistan when women say they want independence, people think this means we don't want to obey our fathers, brothers, or husbands. But it does not mean that. It means we want to make decisions for o…"