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Graça Machel
28 quotes
“Tradition has developed into practices which overtime have become beliefs which in essence they put women in a position of inferiority.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tradition has developed a hierarchy in relationship between men and women that leads to discrimination.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The role tradition has played in the relationship in the family between men and women has been detrimental to women.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The developed world needs to feel that these huge levels of poverty (are) a threat to their own security. When their interests are at risk, money can be found.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We need to make the message much clearer -- that aid means saving lives, it’s not a luxury.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Culture for me is when you sing or dance, when you have theatre, when you read a book, a beautiful poem. It doesn't matter whether it's Shakespeare who wrote it or whether it is an African poet – it is communicating with all of us, regardless of who you are, your colour, your social structure.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not just fear of a husband that makes a woman bow to these traditions. They are ingrained in her from her upbringing, the women learn to accept as if it's normal.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are a society where women, and children by the way, are not safe anywhere. Something absolutely and deeply wrong is happening in our society.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The problem is not the consequences of what’s happening, it’s the root causes of why and how we got where we are as a society.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A pandemic within a pandemic has been exposed and we are confronted with the horrific reality that millions of women and children — in every country — are fighting for their survival, not just from COVID-19 but from the brutalities of abusers in the prisons of their homes.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are proving that we can come together as a united human family to holistically tackle COVID-19, let us apply an equally comprehensive, vigorous, and unrelenting focus to eradicating gender-based violence as well.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have to change our mindsets, our behaviours, our value system.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must reinvent our relationships and re-engineer the way we relate in our families, in our schools, in our workplaces with the spirit of ubuntu that Archbishop Tutu taught us and exudes with every fibre of his being.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These are the beautiful faces,the brilliant minds and vibrant voices of our daughters, nieces, sisters, whose childhood and innocence we have left unprotected, and these shocking statistics on teenage pregnancy do not even paint an accurate nor comprehensive picture of our shameful disregard for young people we claim to love and cherish.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Africa’s socio-economic transformation will only be realized once we aggressively address gender-specific challenges, prioritize gender equality and women’s participation, and firmly entrench women in leadership positions at all levels in society.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“African women need to be in the driving seat of national discourse,women need to be at the centre of our economies,they must also pro-actively seek to correct the status quo.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Investing in education from early childhood has a lasting effect on the survival, development, protection and active participation of children in social, economic and political activities.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education, particularly for girls, is a catalyst for reducing child and maternal deaths and lifting people out of poverty.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To ensure that we achieve the goals for our development by 2063 we need to fully invest in and optimize of the continent’s other half which for too long has been neglected: the African female.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you educate a girl, you educate a nation.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Women are not children; they are adults that know what they want to do. They should be recognised with their dignity and to start a business whenever they feel like it.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People say I am powerful but I care more about impactful – in the work I do with children, adolescents, women or even institutions. Those who observe can say, ‘you are powerful,’ but it doesn’t come from me to say I am powerful.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What they have taught me and what I take from their lives is this real ability to go beyond yourself and to dedicate your life to the common good, to create spaces and opportunities for freedom for all.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is really a deeply rooted crisis of our family structures. We lack clarity on nurturing and educating our children to love and respect one another. It is in our families, churches, the community and the workplace where these issues must be addressed”
Graça Machel (born 1945) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A mother in pain: Graça Machel speaks on the gender based violence and xenophobia gracamacheltrust.org (September 19, 2026)
“If we are here in solidarity, with this beauty of unity, in our pain, we have to pledge to do something.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A mother in pain: Graça Machel speaks on the gender based violence and xenophobia gracamacheltrust.org (September 19, 2026)
“We are not doing enough on the pace and level of investment and we're not going to get there”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have the knowledge, the technology. [But] even the resources which are necessary to invest in rural areas are not as big as the terrible things people are doing to destroy the environment.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As I stand here this morning, every minute children are dying in Africa and Asia from malnutrition.”
Graça Machel (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source