Our Girls at Their School Desks: The Dawhat al-Adab Institute in Damascus

I entered the office of the Dawhat al-Adab Institute in Damascus and found myself in the midst of a distinguished company of the noble ladies and young ladies of Damascus. Among them I knew the noble Mrs. Adila Bayhum, wife of Emir Mukhtar al-Jazairi, president of Dawhat al-Adab and president of the Syrian Arab Women's Union; the literary Mrs. Naima al-Maghribi; and the gracious Misses Widad Quwatli, Ihsan al-Shatti, and Amal al-Jazairi, all of the administrative board of the Dawhat al-Adab association and among the workers of the Syrian women's renaissance.

The talk turned upon several matters, some of them women's concerns, some touching all manner of social and literary questions. Hardly had the conversation brought us to 'The Woman's Voice' when they all showed their admiration for it as a distinguished women's magazine in the Arab East. I told them that this young magazine wished to acquaint its readers with the extent of the activity woman displays in Damascus, and above all with the Dawhat al-Adab Institute — this institute of which we are proud as a mighty national institution, whose aim is to rear the new Arab girl upon the principles of knowledge, right, and freedom.

Here the venerable lady smiled and gave me the following account:

— 'Dawhat al-Adab' was founded in the year 1928 as a reaction against the tyranny of foreign instruction in the country, above all the French. The harm of foreign instruction is well known: it gives the student, boy or girl, no sound national direction.

And so a select company of ladies and young ladies called one another to the founding of 'Dawhat al-Adab.' We began first by gathering contributions, and in a short while we had in hand some 580 gold liras. But such a sum does not suffice for a mighty project like this one, so we waited until the year 1931, when we set to work without a license — and that only because the French, despite the backing of the nationalists, at their head Mr. Muhammad Kurd Ali, Minister of Education at the time, refused to grant the license. As for us, we did not bend from our resolve, but carried the work forward. We began the school with four girl students; by the end of the year their number had risen to sixty. In the year 1944–1945 the classes of 'Dawhat al-Adab' were completed with the philosophy class. And this year, 1945–1946, the number of our students was 639, all of them daughters of the finest houses of the land.

We have, in some measure, reached our goal, which is to draw in the class that used to turn to the foreign schools — the notables and men of standing. We have set apart a budget for those students whose fathers fortune has turned against after days of favor; this budget can admit a hundred students to the school free of charge, and another hundred at half the required fee. Our curriculum follows the government curriculum, but with enlargement: the fine arts in all their kinds, languages, and physical training distinguish its teaching from that of the official schools. In the year 1935 we opened a sewing class, inviting to it ladies from outside the school; 160 ladies have graduated from this class so far. We likewise opened a class in household management, from which some 160 ladies have also graduated.

The curriculum of 'Dawhat al-Adab' is distinguished from the official curriculum by its school activities: the arranging of weekly excursions, athletic contests, lectures, and other undertakings beyond the bounds of the program of study. The students have a society of their own, once called 'the Arab Society'; this year its name became 'Fatat al-Dawha.' This society brings out a magazine which they pass from hand to hand, written out by hand — and God willing it shall become a printed one before very long. The school sends a mission of its graduates to Egypt, and then to Europe or to America, to specialize in higher studies and return to the teaching family at 'the Dawha.'

Our school gives its kindergarten particular care. This year there were 190 children in the kindergarten. Our especial care for the children has its warrant, for they are the foundation upon which we raise the edifice of the future.

— Here I asked the president about the school's administrative body. She said:

— There is an elected society which supervises the school, and it in turn elects a teaching staff, whose number this year was 58.

I said: Does the school meet with encouragement from the government?

— She said: In the first five years from the school's founding we met with no encouragement whatever. Then the government granted us a subsidy of 300 liras a year, and supplied us two women teachers at its own charge. Today the government subsidy has reached twenty thousand Syrian liras.

The venerable president closed her account, saying: 'Dawhat al-Adab' is not a commercial venture but a mission. And we are glad that we keep to our course, from which we shall never swerve: love of the homeland and sacrifice in its cause.

And while the Syrian man was striving and struggling in the streets, the Syrian woman was striving and struggling behind the walls of this school — by rearing the new generation in a sound national upbringing.

Here I took my leave and departed, after making the round of the schoolrooms; they stood empty save of benches and blackboards — and save of cleanliness and good order.