Zahra Quotes in A Hologram for the King (2016)

Alan: [in an email] Dear Dr. Hakem. I hope this message finds you well. Your skill made quick work of that cyst. So I want to thank you again. I've been feeling increasingly energized since the operation and I've already been able to transfer that energy to others successfully. The only catch is now I don't have anything to blame my problems on. That little growth explained everything, and now it's gone. I am sincerely grateful, though, I think. Alan Clay.

Zahra: [her response] Dear Mr. Clay, even though it went a little harder than I expected, it was a simple extraction. Usually the discovery that you're not dying of a malignant tumor leaves most people with their spirits high. But you are not most people, are you? Dr. Zahra Hakem.

Alan: Dear Dr. Hakem, actually, my spirits are very high indeed, maybe too high. I'm feeling a little dizzy. The cause is mysterious. But I have felt a strange new lump in my back. I'm no doctor, but it feels like a rubber glove. Is there a chance you left one? Sometimes people leave things like gloves with someone they like in hopes their retrieval will provide an excuse to see that someone again. Yours, Alan.

Zahra: Dear Alan, I actually might have left something. I'm thinking a sponge? Or maybe part of a snack I ate during the surgery. I think I need to see you again. Perhaps out of the hospital? We don't want to worry your insurers. Zahra.

Ebrahim: [instructing Soyara] When a man accuses his wife, she must prove her innocence. That is the law. On the other hand, if a wife accuses her husband, she must prove his guilt. Do you understand?

Zahra: [to Ebrahim] Yes, it's clear, all women are guilty, and all men are innocent. Correct.

Zahra: Are you frightened?

Soraya M.: Not of death. But of dying, the stones - the pain.

[from trailer]

Zahra: The voices of women do not matter here. I want you to take my voice with you.

Zahra: A Sheikh? More like a holy whore.

Zahra: [Asking to be stoned in place of Soraya] Ebrahim, please, I'll do anything.

Ebrahim: You'll do nothing.

Freidoune: Why should I listen you, because you say, the voices of women no longer matter anyway in this country.

Zahra: Hear my story first, you will know why you should listen.

[last lines]

Zahra: The world will know!

Title Card: When French-Iranian journalist, Freidoune Sahebjam, published The Stoning of Soraya M., it became an international bestseller, focusing attention on the practice of stoning in Iran, as well as the lack of women's rights there. Despite official denials, untold numbers of people, mostly women, continue to be put to death by stoning in many countries around the world.