Asma Khalifa

"I say no to your assumptions, no to your judgements, no to war, no to violence. That’s what I stand for."

"To free myself from my father, who was a dominant and abusive patriarch"

"I will still be an activist when my hair has turned completely white"

"Yes, I survived that"

"Life does continue. We watch a movie and turn up the volume to drown out the sounds of the blasts outside."

"We are challenging their ideas of war. I ask them ‘What are you going to do after the war? Even if by then you are 30, 40, 50, 60?"

"Allowing armed militia’s to participate politically is giving them an opportunity to stop using violence."

"Members of militias sometimes react aggressively. I understand their defensive position. We need to remember that they too are traumatized. Just like ourselves"

"I want them to speak about themselves, not as soldiers, but as young human beings. You can’t measure that kind of action, I don’t know how successful that is"

"They see us as these westernized young people with their crazy ideologies, as foreign agents"

"As an activist, I try to see entry points. I never judge or condemn"

"I look for exit points, always make sure I have some sharp item in my bag, knowing I might be sexually violated or attacked"

"What scares me a lot in Europe is youth’s political apathy"

"They all fall. We do have a common land, a common sky. There is our connection, our common experience. Only that is constant. Everything else is changeable. So please, Europe, resist fear"