I am appalled to hear the defence of the niqab or burka in Europe. A bizarre political correctness has tied the tongues of those who would normally rally to defend women's rights but who are now instead sacrificing those very rights in the name of fighting an increasingly powerful right wing.

I defend a woman's right to cover her hair if she chooses, but the face is central to human interaction, and so the ideologues who promote its covering are simply misogynists.

I abhor the rightwing Muslim ideology behind the veils, but I equally abhor the political rightwing xenophobes of Europe.

Too often, when Muslim women speak out, some in our 'community' accuse us of 'making our men look bad' and of giving ammunition to right-wing Islamophobes.

It is the harassers and assaulters who make us 'look bad,' not the women who have every right to expose crimes against them.

I can write about my culture and religion because I am a product of both. Even when I'm accused of giving ammunition to the Islamophobic right, in the struggle between 'community' and 'women,' I always choose the women.

The fight against racism must be seen as a revolutionary one.

My feminism does not demand that a woman have an equal opportunity to torture, alongside men. Torture is no less wrong because a woman, not a man, carries it out.

Feminism, as I see it, is not about counting women in key jobs.

Women of color have always been kind of boxed in by the idea that the more you talk about the misogyny of your own community, the more you make that community look bad.

I avoid continuously writing or tweeting about ISIS, as it centres them in the narrative and we end up reacting to them and reacting to the agenda they set.

I grew up looking at my parents as equals.

We left Egypt when I was seven, and we didn't return until I was 21. My teen years were divided between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. Up until we left the U.K., it was like your regular teenage years. The one thing I remember is that I couldn't date. That was one thing my parents made very clear.

I grew up in the U.K., and my parents are both doctors.

Beauty is a gift, just like good health or intelligence. The only thing is not to be proud of being beautiful. Because you didn't do anything - it was given to you.

Lipstick is the most valuable weapon in a woman's make-up kit. It has the power to transform the appearance and mood of the person wearing it, and, at the same time, arouses the admiration of everybody else.

When I eat with my friends, it is a moment of real pleasure, when I really enjoy my life.

A woman has so many facets, and when you create an image, you have to play with all the different moments of your femininity, not just one thing, because everybody can get bored.

I come from a Catholic religion, but I'm not Catholic.

What's natural is beautiful, and when you're not you anymore, you become a caricature.

When I'm relaxed, jeans and a shirt are my uniform.

We all need illusions. That's why we love movies.

I do acupuncture. Because it really helps. It is the opposite of Botox. Botox blocks, and acupuncture moves.

I am an agnostic, even though I respect and am interested in all religions. If there's something I believe in, it's a mysterious energy; the one that fills the oceans during tides, the one that unites nature and beings.

I love jewelry - gold and diamonds. I'm a woman.

I believe that time destroys everything. You can take one beautiful apple, red. After a while, it becomes shrivelled and full of worms, just like what happens to us.

Just a touch of eyeliner and red lips is glamorous.

When people divorce, it's always such a tragedy. At the same time, if people stay together it can be even worse.

I am certainly Italian in my love of food! I eat everything, but I love Italian food most of all. Even my daughter does. Her favourite food is pasta and parmigiana.

I'm a lucky person because I've been loved a lot. I have a great family.

The single woman is a free woman, and being single does not mean being alone - it means being free to have a relationship or not. This can be scary, but it's also very interesting.

I was very shy as a girl. Absurdly shy, even. Maybe because I was an only child. And I think that's why I'm so happy to have two kids now.

I wouldn't want to be 20 again for anything.

I like to be in the spotlight once in a while, and then I like to be in the shadows. It's really regenerating.

For me, true beauty has nothing to do with wrinkles and everything to do with the fact that my maternal grandmother raised five children just after the war and remained a fighter throughout her life. True beauty is the slick of red lipstick my paternal grandmother would put on before going to church on Sunday.

I know many beautiful people and their lives are just so terrible. They feel so uncomfortable with themselves. Being comfortable is not about what you look like, but how you feel.

If a man sees a woman with red lipstick, he admires her, but often he won't feel like kissing her.

In so many places in the world, women have been prisoners for so long that they feel they have to scream about their rights. But when you scream, nobody listens to you. Real authority comes when you no longer need to scream - and that's something we women still need to learn.

Envy is human nature.

I grew up in Perugia, Umbria, in a world outside of fashion, so I didn't learn about it until I was older and moved away. In Milan, the women are really into fashion, and all the big fashion brands are based there, but I don't think they feel pressure to look good all the time.

After a while in marriage, it doesn't work anymore. There is something missing, there is something wrong. There are few marriages that stay alive forever. We like something, and after a while, we hate what we used to love.

Time destroys everything.

When a relationship doesn't work anymore, it's terrible to stay with someone that you don't love.

In France, they call the beauty of youth 'the evil beauty.' You don't have it because of you but because you're born with it. The other kind of beauty is your own work, and it takes forever.

Being an actress is the sublimation of feminity.

I don't stress myself about my looks. I love to laugh. I like being able to lead an interesting life.

Wherever I go, I am Italian. The way I talk, the way I eat, the way femininity is important to me. The way I love Italian food.

When you see a silent movie, you understand everything that's going on from the images because the images are so strong.

Sometimes when we think about femininity, we think also fragile. But I think you can be feminine and very strong. I think make-up goes with that femininity. I think it's a natural gesture for women and one they do more for themselves than for others.

Sometimes it's more difficult to exist as a female lead, especially in action movies because all those men are around you. They take so much place.