My Frank Opinion of The Woman's Voice Magazine

The response to the first competition of "The Woman's Voice," on the subject "My frank opinion of The Woman's Voice magazine," was tremendous. And if this response indicates anything, it indicates first and foremost the measure of admiration and esteem which our gracious readers hold for this young magazine.

We should have liked the pages of this magazine to be wide enough to publish all these replies; we therefore content ourselves with publishing those replies which, in the eyes of the judging committee, won preference. We begin in this issue by publishing the reply that won the first prize. It is by the woman of letters Miss Mufida al-Dabbagh (Jaffa — Palestine). We shall then publish the two replies that won the second prize, by Mrs. Jihan Aony (Tripoli) and Miss Najla Atiyya (Binno — Akkar).

The committee has also decided that special mention must be made of the beautiful reply sent in by Miss Marie Kardahi (Beirut), and has proposed its publication. We may therefore publish it too in a coming issue.

"The Woman's Voice" congratulates the gracious winners, thanks them for their esteem, and asks them to inform the administration how their prizes should be sent to them.

Here follows the reply of the first-prize winner, Miss Mufida al-Dabbagh:

I have welcomed the coming of this well-balanced magazine. By the enlightened, wise articles it publishes, and by its studies so rich in benefit on the various affairs of science and society, it adds to its reader's culture and widens the horizons of her thought, so that she can take part in any conversation ably and profitably, and win esteem and admiration.

Likewise, by the lives it records of men and women at work, it whets their zeal and awakens in souls the love of the virtues; and by the news it carries of the women's associations, and the articles it publishes by Arab women writers, it strengthens the ties of culture and the bonds of thought among the women of the Arab East.

And its fashion models help a woman keep pace with the newest and loveliest fashions. The truth is that what I read in "The Woman's Voice" magazine clings to my mind and leaves a deep impression on my soul. I have been able to profit from its articles on education in my work as a teacher, and I have also been able to draw from it much of the information which I gave out under the title "Test Your Knowledge" from the Near East magazine. I do not exaggerate when I say that reading it is delightful and useful, and that the most profitable of hours is the hour I spend in reading it.

But I find that the style of writing in it is lofty and deep, hard for some to understand and to profit by; and the magazine is almost devoid of the story element in many issues — and the story, as we know, is an important element that answers to woman's nature.

And if the magazine were to lower its price, it would let many more women read it and share in its pleasure and its profit. So give us more of it — and make it a weekly!