Women's Activity in the Arab World — The Women's Union Society in Nablus

From the secretary of the Women's Union Society in Nablus, Palestine, Mrs. Sabiha Shakir al-Nabulsi, we have received a comprehensive report on the activity of the branch of this young women's association in Nablus. "The Woman's Voice" has seen fit to extract from it what its pages can hold, thanking the worthy lady and the members of the Union for their laudable endeavors in the service of society and its advancement:

Before this association was officially founded, a number of women in this city, headed by Miss Maryam Hashim, carried on works of charity, aid to the poor, and the sheltering of the orphans of the revolt. Though the efforts made by this president deserve to be thanked and remembered, a group of women thought to invigorate this good work: they met and refounded the association, making it a branch of the Women's Union Society in the country, in the year 1945, to carry out all that duty demands of it. It has moved steadily forward on the road of success, and is pleased to announce that it has performed some part of its duty, as follows:

1 — Sewing:

Just as the charitable work used to go on by itself, so too the work of sewing, its diffusion in the homes, and the encouragement of the needy to take up learning it among the families of the middle class of the people, to say nothing of the other classes, has been advancing with broad strides — thanks to the present president of this branch, Miss al-Hajja Andalib Ahmad al-Amad, who has supervised and presided over these works since 1931.

2 — Embroidery and handwork:

Mindful of the practical and artistic benefits of embroidery within the sewing section, the association set aside time for the girls learning sewing to learn something of embroidery as well. The result was a lively, blessed movement that made the girls take eagerly to learning this beautiful branch. This year the association exhibited pieces of these girls' work, which won the admiration and appreciation of the women of the city who came to see them.

3 — Combating illiteracy among girls and ladies:

Immediately upon its founding, the association carried out the idea of combating illiteracy among the girls whom harsh circumstances, or the narrowness of the government schools, had denied deliverance from the disease of ignorance and the shame of illiteracy in this age. The association opened a single class whose enrollment exceeded forty girls and ladies of ages ranging between 9 and 25. It has also established a branch for teaching the English language, a branch for the care of orphans, and a library containing a number of the necessary books.

4 — Care for public health:

The association has held it among its foremost duties to care for the health of poor and needy women. It has arranged with many of the city's good physicians to examine sick women free of charge. And the association stands ready to provide whatever expenses a sick woman may require, should she need consultations outside the city, in the other cities of Palestine.

5 — Financial assistance:

The calamity that befell the sister Syrian country, and the immortal city of Damascus, through the injustice of foreign colonialism, left a deep mark upon the souls of the association's members. They set about collecting contributions, which reached (380) Palestine pounds and which the association presented to those in authority in the Syrian Republic. The association has also given some financial assistance to the Dayr Amr orphans' institution, and it has extended every possible aid to the families in quiet need in Nablus, allotting them fixed monthly stipends.

Nor has the association forgotten its great duty toward the families of the prisoners of the revolt: it has resolved to pay them fixed monthly stipends, over and above health care and attention to the children of the prisoners, who have been deprived of their fathers — victims of honor and manly virtue. The prisoners themselves have a large share of attention in the association's work: it has raised protests against the ill-treatment the prisoner meets in his prison, and has submitted many petitions asking that their affairs be attended to and that they be released.

6 — Health and cultural lectures:

The association has also planned the giving of health lectures on the care of personal matters, on protection against contagious diseases, on child welfare, and on other subjects a girl needs to know in order to perfect her progress and her mind. The Working Arab Girl branch, whose members number more than seventy girls, performed the play "al-Mu'tasim bi-llah," whose aim, on the moral side, was to spread culture among the families and raise the cultural and social level; while on the material side, its proceeds were devoted to combating illiteracy and to aiding the orphans of the revolt and teaching them in the association's own school for the instruction of illiterate boys and girls.