Toward Distant Horizons...

To Beirut, to Cairo, to London — thus does the daughter of my country shake the dust of idleness from her feet, and thus does she leap up in pursuit of learning... thus does she mean it to be: a sound renaissance resting upon strong foundations of knowledge.

In Beirut today there is a number of Palestinian girls studying for the B.A. degree; and those who have obtained it — and they are many — now hold good posts in the government departments of the country. As for the M.A. degree, many have obtained that as well, the first of them the late Miss Fatima al-Husseini, who died some years ago — a loss to learning and to youth.

In Egypt, too, there is a fair number of girl students. Among them I know Miss Jacqueline Khoury of Haifa, who is studying journalism, and Miss Raida Jarallah of Jerusalem, who took the B.A. degree from the American University of Beirut and then entered Fuad I University in Cairo, where last year she won the master's degree in Islamic history — being, as the Egyptian papers noted at the time, the first girl from the sister countries to win this degree from the Egyptian university; and Miss Raida has returned to the university to work for the doctorate.

In London today are two Palestinian girls studying the systems of social affairs so as to apply them in Palestine: Miss Mary Ghawi and Ismat Abulin; nor has London, these twenty years, been without Palestinian girl students, sent on government missions to study various branches of learning.

Palestine today has three women physicians: the first, Dr. Saba, graduated in London and returned there to work in the Thorington hospital; the second, Salwa Khoury, works in the government hospital in Jerusalem; and the third, Riyad Badir, practices on her own account in Haifa.

As for the higher schools in Palestine, and as for those who study in them and then hasten off to Egypt or Europe to fulfill the hopes beating in their breasts — how many they are! And perhaps, in offering you these brief notes on those schools, I may draw you a picture of the renaissance of the Palestinian woman, which may well reach, in the very near future, the level of the renaissance of the most advanced women in the world.

(1) Birzeit College, in the village of Birzeit near Jerusalem, founded in 1931; its founder and directress is an Arab young lady, Miss Nabiha Nasser. The college, with its well-ordered administration and the Arab spirit that pervades it, is one of the glories of woman: it proves to the world that the Arab woman can work independently and succeed.

(2) Schmidt College in Jerusalem, founded in 1886, which became a college in 1930: its students number 450 and its teachers 21. For eight years it has been directed by the Arab Sister Evelyn Sa'ati of Haifa, after she had taught in it for fifteen years. In this college the first Arab girl won the certificate of higher instruction.

(3) The Women Teachers' Training College in Jerusalem, founded by the government of Palestine in 1919; its students, 75 in number, are chosen from all the schools of Palestine, and study, in addition to the academic subjects, household management, child welfare, and the science of education, in both theory and practice.

(4) The college of the Nazareth Nuns in Haifa, founded in the year 1856; its students number 416, and like the others they sit for the matriculation examination and pass.

(5) The Sisters of Zion in Jerusalem, founded in 1880, which became a college in 1933; its students number 400. The school's official language is French, but the students take the qualifying examination in English.

(6, 7, and 8) Three English colleges, in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Haifa, all founded between 1919 and 1921; the number of students in each ranges between 400 and 450.

(9) St. Joseph's College in Jerusalem, a school for girls in Palestine founded in 1848, which became a college in 1919; its students number 420, and like the others they sit for the Oxford and Cambridge examination and pass.

(10) The Friends College in Ramallah, founded in 1882, with 260 students. Arabic is taught there by one of the torch-bearers, Miss Wadia Shatara, who graduated from the English College in Beirut and took her certificate in 1910.

All these schools, moreover, prepare their students for the London matriculation, the Palestine matriculation, and Oxford and Cambridge. Seven girls from Haifa sat for this last examination and passed it, and three of them were exempted from taking the "matric" examination, because those in charge judged their intelligence and their attainments to be above the required standard.

And now — has this piece, laden with figures, wearied you? The first thing a woman hates, and the last, is arithmetic; so I have excused you in advance, and our next appointment is when we meet on a green and level stretch of ground, with no hillocks and no hills... Until we meet again...

(Acre — Palestine)