Letters and News

The Lebanese Women's League is holding its annual fête in the 'Gardenia' garden in Beirut at five o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday, the 18th of this October, under the patronage of His Excellency the President of the Republic, Sheikh Beshara El-Khouri. The fête will be interspersed with the dabkeh dance, performed by certain gracious ladies, young ladies, and cultivated young men. Its proceeds are set aside for the projects of the Lebanese Women's League.

Dar al-Kitab announces to the readers of its magazines and to those having business with it that the address of its branch in the United States is as follows:

Mr. Fuad Badr
Dar al-Kitab
489 Fifth avenue
New York 17, N. Y.

They may accordingly apply to it directly in all matters that concern them.

The marriage contract of our generous friend Mr. Adib Sarkis to the well-bred Miss Samira Najib Jaber was concluded on the afternoon of Sunday, September 21, 1947, in Beirut. To the bride and groom our sincere congratulations.

God has blessed the notable Mr. Habib Breid, director of the Department of Statistics and Personal Status, and his virtuous wife with a baby boy, whom they have named William. May God make him one of the children of well-being.

The Lebanese Women's League and the family of The Woman's Voice magazine offer to the noble campaigner Mrs. Sami Ghazzawi and to her husband, the great notable, their most sincere sentiments of condolence on the loss of their son Omar, mourned in his youth. May God grant recompense in the well-being of his brothers under the wing of their generous parents.

The Lebanese government has completed the formalities for purchasing the land it promised the Lebanese Women's League for the building of a great model kindergarten. The League gives the government its fullest thanks.

The Egyptian magazine al-Alam al-Arabi has appeared in new dress; a company of leading figures in letters, politics, society, and economics take part in its editing, with the participation of the great writer Mr. Mahmoud Taymour Bey and under the editorship-in-chief of the journalist Mr. Mahmoud al-Azab Musa. We wish our colleague progress and success.

Word has reached us from Dr. Fuad Ghosn of the resumed publication of the 'Scientific Medical Journal,' of which he is editor-in-chief. There is no doubt that this journal fills a great gap in the scientific press. We bid it welcome.

The Women's Union in Jerusalem has arranged with an able physician returned from Europe to devote four days a week to the care of children: one day for guiding mothers, one for the medical examination of children, another for weighing them, and so on. The Union made its preparations and held a women's congress attended by delegates of all the women's associations in the country. Elsewhere in this issue readers will find a commentary on this congress from the pen of the Palestinian woman of letters Miss Fayza Abdul Majeed.

The Orthodox Women's Committee in Acre has made it its custom to hold a literary festival every month, presenting to the public one of the sister countries. This month's festival was devoted to Lebanon: Miss Samira Azzam spoke on historic Lebanon, Miss Samiha Jarrah on literature in Lebanon, Miss Renée Matar on woman in Lebanon, and Mrs. Asma Tubi on free Lebanon and its folk literature. Miss Jawhara Roumani recited the poem that opens 'Neighbor to the stars, it has occupied the clouds.' The gathering was interspersed with Lebanese songs, and the public went away praising this active committee. The young women of this committee — though not four months have passed since its founding — have managed to stage an excellent moral play, whose proceeds were set aside for enlarging the club's school...

The ladies of Tulkarm have founded a club whose first aims are the enlightenment of woman in her household affairs, the rearing of children, and the raising of the social level. Those in charge of it have begun preparing a reading library, and they have named the club: the Concord Club.

The Solidarity Association has begun holding weekly cultural sessions at which one of the women writers gives talks on education and instruction. At the first session the association's secretary delivered a full report on the association's work and on the sewing workshop it has established.

The Women's Solidarity Association is preparing to open its great charity bazaar, and will distribute its proceeds to the poor as usual.

The Society for the Care of the Sick and the Crippled in Jerusalem held a well-stocked bazaar on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the founding of its shelter. A hundred ladies supervised the sale of the bazaar's contents, and its receipts reached 820 Palestinian pounds. When this shelter opened it had 7 beds; it now has 30 beds.

The Evangelical Ladies' Society held an evening entertainment interspersed with plaintive music, mellow singing, and varied games, at which sweets and ices were served; its proceeds were set aside for building a new school in Haifa.

At the invitation of the Orthodox Women's Committee, Dr. Elias Deeb delivered a lecture entitled 'The Diseases of Summer and the Ways of Guarding Against Them.' A large audience attended, and it was a valuable lecture.

Miss Labiba Mustafa al-Husseini delivered a lecture in the hall of the Sports Club in Jerusalem entitled 'How Can We Fight Illiteracy?' It was a useful lecture.

The delegate of 'Dar al-Kitab' was returning from Europe aboard the steamer 'Sirenia' when he met the venerable leader Huda Hanem Shaarawi on the same ship, returning from Switzerland to Alexandria. He had the honor of making Her Ladyship's acquaintance, and expressed to her the reverence and gratitude that 'The Woman's Voice' cherishes for her. He then asked her the purpose of her journey to Switzerland, and she answered that she had gone to Switzerland on business connected with women's causes. But success did not attend her this time, and she spent a period in Switzerland for recreation. She went on to express her wonder at what she had seen of certain Arab families' eagerness to pass the summer in that country instead of in Lebanon, which she reckons among the ranks of the finest summering countries in the world, notwithstanding certain disagreeable matters touching living conditions which the summer visitor encounters.

When our delegate asked her opinion of the magazine 'The Woman's Voice,' she was kind enough to say: 'I have given my opinion many times: this magazine is very dear to me. It is the finest women's magazine in the Arab world, and I am proud that the Arab woman should have so high a literary magazine as The Woman's Voice. We publish an Arab women's magazine in Egypt; it is still in its first stage, and we feel the necessity of cooperation between it and The Woman's Voice in matters of management and editing.'

Word has come to us from our colleague Mr. Jaafar Sharafeddine, proprietor of the magazine al-Ahd, that he has resolved to resume its publication after its summer recess, with new preparations, on the first of next October. We wish him and his Ahd continued progress and success.

There passed to the mercy of the Most High, at noon on Saturday, August 23, the virtuous Mrs. Maryam Issa Hindi, wife of the notable Mr. Elias al-Trabulsi, at the age of seventy years spent in good works. Prayers were said over her soul at the Church of Our Lady in Beirut, and her body was carried to her birthplace, Kfarhouna, where it was laid in the earth amid anguish and sorrow. To her generous husband and her children and all her kin, the grace of solace and consolation.

● The marriage contract of the skilled physician Dr. Afif Mufarrij to the woman of letters Miss Nasima Mufarrij has been concluded. The Woman's Voice offers the two generous newlyweds its sincere congratulations, wishing them every happiness and felicity.

● Lebanon, and especially Lebanese women's circles, bade farewell to the virtuous woman of letters Mrs. Adliya, wife of the Honorable Ahmad Bey Abdul Majid, consul of Egypt in Lebanon, who has been transferred to one of the high posts in Egypt. This farewell was an occasion for the ladies of Lebanon, and especially the members of the Lebanese Women's League, to show their attachment to Mrs. Adliya and their esteem for her, and to thank her for her love of Lebanon and her devotion to it.

● The Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah society in Zahle held a grand fête under the patronage of the noble Mrs. Isabel, wife of the Amid Mr. Georges Maalouf. The hall was packed with guests, ladies and gentlemen, foremost among them Mr. Nazem Bey Akkari, representing the government, the Governor of the Beqaa, and a number of deputies and notables. The virtuous Mrs. Muneera Dumit Shehadeh, wife of Dr. Ibrahim Shehadeh, and Mrs. Ellen Rihan, wife of Dr. Habib Rihan, delivered two valuable addresses. At the close of the fête the Honorable Mr. Nazem Akkari rose, saluted the women's renaissance of Zahle and its kindergarten, and read out a presidential decree conferring on Mrs. Muneera Shehadeh the gilt Lebanese Order of Merit in recognition of her blessed services in the women's and educational field.

The Woman's Voice presents its warm congratulations to Mrs. Muneera on this recognition, which she deserves on her merits.

● Dar al-Kitab has resolved to issue publications for the child under the title 'The Child's Library,' its aim being to fill this gap of which Arabic letters still complain. It will shortly begin publishing a series of stories for children from the pen of the woman of letters Mrs. Edvick Jureidini Shayboub, former directress of the Lebanese Women's League's kindergarten. It will also publish a collection of songs for children, with their music, from the pen of the woman of letters Miss Rose Ghorayeb. All these publications will be adorned with colored drawings from the brush of the artist Radwan al-Shahhal.

● The period for receiving replies to one of The Woman's Voice's competitions, published in the last issue — namely, 'My Frank Opinion of The Woman's Voice Magazine' — has closed. The response to it was heavy. We shall publish the result in the coming issue.

Mr. Georges Ashkar has proposed that 'The Woman's Voice' poll its women readers on the following subject:
● 'Must a girl refuse marriage because she is bound to the care of her mother?'

We hope that all our women readers will give their opinions on this social problem, which so often presents itself in life. We shall publish the best replies, and present the writer of the best with the prize of a free subscription to the magazine for a full year.