A Survey of Schoolgirls

A Survey of Schoolgirls

The Woman's Voice put a number of questions to some students, asking them to answer whichever of them they wished. Here we publish those questions, together with some of the answers that reached us from the American College for Girls:

1 — If you were given ten thousand liras right now, how would you spend it?

2 — What kind of future do you wish for yourself?

3 — If you were given the choice of writing the biography of a genius, whom would you choose?

4 — What, in your opinion, are the qualities of the ideal woman?

5 — Which lesson is the most important, in your view?

6 — Are you content to be a girl, or would you have preferred to be a young man — and why?

7 — If you could choose the country in which you were born, which country would you choose?

8 — What is the most beautiful hour you have ever known?

9 — What is your advice to the younger generation of girls?

10 — What kind of young man do you want as a companion for your life?

1) As far as it would suffice me, I would go on a world tour.

2) A future brimming with adventures.

3) Stalin.

4) Contentment, patience, and femininity.

5) No lesson at all...

6) No objection to God's decree.

7) I would not trade Lebanon for any other.

8) An hour in which I dreamed I was on the deck of a steamer, off on a voyage.

9) To persevere in demanding woman's rights.

10) One of my own choosing!...

1) I would begin with it my ideal school...

3) That prisoner within the two confinements.

4) She whom culture has polished and morals have bejeweled.

5) Philosophy, or the evolution of human thought.

7) If rights were equal, femininity would be dearer to me than manhood...

8) A land of intellectual production... not of material amusement; a land of uprightness and humanity, not of fabrication and selfishness.

10) I have not finished the first stage yet, so as to be free to think about this subject.

1) I would give it to my father.

3) Dante.

5) Psychology.

6) I am content.

7) America.

9) That they hold themselves in esteem.

10) I love a young man who is worldly-wise, sober, refined, handsome, and tall.

1) If I were given ten thousand liras right now, I would travel to the United States to complete my education there.

2) After I finish my education, I would like to live a married, family life.

3) If I were given the choice of writing the biography of a genius, I would choose the life of "Beethoven."

4) The ideal woman, in my opinion, is the woman who is modest, kind, delicate of feeling, beautiful and noble of soul, a good manager of her home, and respected by all.

5) The study of society is the most important lesson, in my view.

6) Yes, I am content to be a girl.

7) If it were mine to choose the country in which I would like to be born, I would choose the Scandinavian countries.

8) Yes, I have felt happy several times, but until now no hour has passed that I have known as the most beautiful hour of my life.

1) I would open an institute containing all the musical instruments, where a classical orchestra would play every night, and whoever wished could attend free of charge.

2) I wish for a future full of journeys.

3) I would write the biography of Dr. Charles Malik.

4) Winsomeness, chastity, intelligence, and frankness.

5) Sociology.

6) Very content.

7) In Plato's Republic.

8) The hour of my arrival back home after having left it for the first time.

9) My little sisters: educate yourselves, then educate yourselves, then educate yourselves.

10) The steadfast one, who appreciates God's blessing and sees beauty in everything.

Miss Nihad al-Orfali

1) I would open with it an institute for the upbringing of small children no more than four years old, because of their scarcity in Iraq.

2) An active member of the charitable associations.

3) I would write about al-Buhturi.

4) Simplicity, gentleness, femininity, honesty, sincerity, and cheerfulness.

5) The study of child psychology.

6) I am content to be a woman.

7) I choose Iraq, my birthplace.

8) The hour in which I shall be happy has not yet struck.

10) That he be an emancipator of woman, highly cultured, lofty in morals, and not less than I in learning or in degrees.

Miss Aisha Fouad Bondok

1) I would buy a plot of land in some quarter other than Sanayeh, to be made into a public garden set aside for the recreation of children.

2) I wish for a future that fits me for the service of society.

3) I would choose to write the biography of the Prophet Muhammad.

4) Learning, tenderness, modesty, virtue, kindness, purity.

5) The lessons are all equal in importance to me, but the most important for a girl is household management.

6) Yes, I am content, out of loyalty to my sex.

7) I would choose none other than my homeland, Lebanon.

8) The hour Lebanon won its independence.

9) That they learn, and take part in raising the standing of woman.

10) I prefer that he be cultured.

Miss Fadila al-Hariri

1) This question has cost me deep thought without my arriving at a solution; it appears that surplus money begets weariness of mind and anxiety — so I return it whence it came.

2) I wish for a quiet future in the bosom of a happy family.

3) If I were given the choice of writing the biography of a genius, I would choose al-Ma'arri.

4) The qualities of the ideal woman, in my view, are modesty — sincerity — self-sacrifice.

5) Physical training is the most important lesson to me.

6) Unhappily, in my present surroundings I would prefer to be a young man, for I see that the freedom granted to them exceeds a girl's freedom in every sense of the word.

7) I see no necessity whatever for existence in this life.

8) The happy hour I dream of has not yet struck.

10) I prefer to have a companion with an iron will.

Miss Huda Farraj

1) I would buy the clothes and books I want, and give the rest to the Arab Orphan Home at Deir Amr.

2) I wish myself a quiet, scholarly future in a quiet house with a quiet person.

3) I think I would write "the life of Beethoven," or the life of "Socrates."

4) That she be calm of temper, sincere and tender, educated and well-mannered, and possessed of a capacity for organization.

5) I find no lesson more important than another in my view; each completes the other in the perfecting of culture.

6) I am content to be a girl, so as to carry out the responsibility laid upon woman's shoulders.

7) Palestine is the country in which it was decreed I should be born; it is the one I choose, and I shall never choose another.

8) The hour I was born.

9) My advice to them is "not to take Western civilization wholesale, but to take the best that is in it, and to hold fast to their Arabism."

Miss Labiba al-Husseini

1) I would return it to its owner, because it would trouble me.

2) Founder of an Arab college in Jerusalem.

3) Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri.

4) Sincerity, the culture necessary to her, and her understanding of her responsibility.

5) Child psychology (because the future of the country depends on the child).

6) Yes, content.

7) Switzerland.

8) An hour I spent in Cairo.

9) Knowledge, discernment, avoidance of extremes, and following reason, not emotion.

10) The one at whose side I can realize my hopes.

Miss Mutia Deeb

1) I would go to America.

2) To be an ideal housewife.

3) I would write the biography of Dr. Taha Hussein Bey.

6) I am content to be a girl, because if I were given the same opportunities that are given to a young man, I could do works perhaps greater than the works a young man does.

Miss Rose Murad

1) I would spend it on compulsory education.

3) Florence Nightingale, for her risks and her self-sacrifice.

4) Preserving her femininity, cultured, modest.

5) World history.

6) I am proud to be a girl, because of the greatness of my responsibility in life.

Miss Najwa Mustafa al-Sayyid

4) The ideal woman is she who is adorned with sincerity, chastity, virtue, purity, and true love.

6) Since a girl has the same mind a young man has, and since, if she is educated, she can do the same works he does — why should I prefer to be a young man!!!

8) Whatever answer I give — frankly, I say that I shall not be frank, because I consider it personal, and I must leave it alone.

9) I have three counsels: 1 — unveiling for Muslim women; 2 — self-reliance in all matters; 3 — being on guard against the young men of this age.

Miss Majida Makki al-Orfali

1) I would give it to the Ministry of Education.

3) Muhammad the Prophet, God's blessing and peace be upon him.

4) Her being adorned with love, sincerity, truthfulness, and lofty morals.

5) Literature, because it is the nourishment of mind and heart.

6) No — I would have preferred to be a young man, so that the field of work would be wide open to me.

7) Baghdad, my birthplace, so that I might reform it.

8) The hour of my acceptance at the American College in Beirut.

9) That they preserve their femininity, seek learning, and adorn themselves with lofty morals.

Miss Madiha al-Azzawi

1) How lovely, if only it came true!...

2) A woman of influence on the martial-law council.

3) Bidpai the philosopher.

4) Sedateness when walking down the street.

5) The psychology of men.

7) The Hawaiian Islands.

8) The most beautiful hour has not yet passed, and I am waiting for it.

9) Eat, drink, and sing, for tomorrow is yesterday.

8) The hour I thought I understood.

9) Striving after high culture.

10) He is the one to whom, when I bring my grievance, I find him a mirror of my own self.

Miss Suad Abu al-Huda

1) I would divide it in two: I would spend one half on a journey to somewhere, and the other on charitable projects.

2) To live at the side of someone who understands me and gives me freedom enough to realize the hopes I hold within me for my country.

3) Al-Mutanabbi.

4) The woman who can make her husband and her children happy.

5) The science of health.

6) Yes, I am content.

7) I would choose — "rather that I be an Englishwoman than an emigrant Arab woman."

9) That they be practical, sincere, and frank, and know their duties.

10) The cultured man who values woman: frank, upright, calm of nerve, loving his work, his home, and his children.

Miss Isam Mudar

1) I would present it to my first school, the Kfarshima National School, to put up its building.

2) President of charitable projects.

3) Wadih Sabra.

5) Psychology.

6) Without doubt I prefer to be a girl.

7) My country, though it wrong me, is dear,
And my people, though they begrudge me, are noble.

8) That longed-for hour has not yet passed.

1) I would furnish my library with popular books first, then give the rest to a clever, poor girl who aspires to learning.

2) I would choose the biography of Dr. Taha Hussein.

3) The qualities of the ideal woman, in my opinion, are: learning and culture, modesty, sincerity, self-sacrifice for the sake of others' happiness, purity, and tenderness.

4) As a girl, I prefer the lesson of household management and whatever relates to it.

7) I would choose Lebanon, and Lebanon alone.

8) The hour of my return to my family and my homeland after an absence that lasted three months — the first in my life.

10) I prefer the young man sound of body, learned and cultured, strong in faith, in whom is the meaning of manhood.

1) I would educate with it five girls who show the marks of genius.

2) To be a famous writer.

3) Umar ibn al-Khattab.

4) The cultured, kind, gentle woman with a humane heart, who performs her private duties before her public ones.

5) Psychology, for through it I know my own soul and the souls of others.

6) No... I am not content to be a girl — and is there any doubt of my preferring to be a young man? For life belongs to the stronger, especially in a country like ours.

7) I would choose Switzerland, because it has united the beauty of nature with the beauty of character.

10) I want the man of conscience who is a champion of truth, and who considers woman a living creature possessing all that the reality of the human being requires of feeling, heart, and mind.