The Woman's Voice in Damascus

The Lebanese Women's League sent the committee of The Woman's Voice to Damascus to acquaint itself with women's activity there. There went the president of the League, Mrs. Heneni Tarcha, and Mesdames Afifi Majdalani, Issam al-Rifai, and Lily Badre. Mrs. Fayza, wife of Riad Bey al-Solh, kindly offered them her private car to remain with them the whole day; the Lebanese Women's League takes this occasion to thank Mrs. Fayza for the zeal she has never ceased to show toward the projects of the Lebanese Women's League and the women's renaissance.

The ladies went straight to the house of Mrs. Maria al-Azm, where Mrs. Maria received them with that lofty, gracious welcome of hers; they felt an ease, a harmony, and a pleasure that stayed with them all day long, so that all their meetings with the other rising ladies of Damascus were successful in every way.

Mrs. Maria al-Azm had arranged a comprehensive program for the day, one showing that Mrs. Maria possesses a wide knowledge and a surpassing competence in the field of the women's renaissance, such as come only after long practice and broad, understanding experience.

Space does not allow us to describe in detail the work of all the associations which this committee visited; we shall content ourselves with mentioning them briefly here. In coming issues of The Woman's Voice we hope to give a full report on every work and every association in detail, so that our ladies in all the Arab countries may learn of one another's activity and exchange views and experiences.

The first visit on the program was a visit to Her Ladyship the First Lady of Syria, Mrs. Quwatli. But she excused herself because her mother was in the hospital, and gave the Beirut delegation another appointment, at half past three in the afternoon.

The committee then began with a visit to the "Milk Drop" center, where it learned all the details of this useful project, carried on by an administrative committee composed of 25 ladies, most of whom the committee was able to meet on the afternoon of that day. The president of this association is Mrs. Asma al-Abid.

After that the committee visited the center of the Red Crescent — that mighty work which His Excellency al-Quwatli takes under his patronage, and whose women's section is headed by Mrs. Zahra al-Abid.

The honorary president of this project is Mrs. Asma Khoury, wife of Faris Bey al-Khoury. And the nursing section in it is headed by Mrs. Maria al-Azm.

From there we moved by car to the Girls' Guardianship Home, the project carried on by the Association of Women Teachers' College Graduates in Damascus. This association concerns itself with the children of the poor, and especially the children of the martyrs of the October uprising. We saw there 50 pupils between the ages of 7 and 12, whom the association clothes and provides with books and instruction free of charge. And how moving was the scene when those schoolgirls chanted the orphans' anthem before the committee! The committee did not have the good fortune to meet the president of the association, Mrs. Munira al-Muhayiri, but it had the honor of meeting Mrs. Saniyya Qabbani, who supervises the running of the school, and it felt in her the true spirit of sacrifice and service.

From there the committee went to the famous Dawhat al-Adab, the secondary and higher school for girls run by a committee belonging to the Women's Union association in Damascus. There the committee's good fortune was great, for it met an elite of the finest ladies of Damascus, who work in the forefront of the Damascene women's movement — at their head the president of the Union, Mrs. Adila Bayhum al-Jazairi. And how great was the committee's admiration for the high standard this school has attained in training and education, rivaling the most advanced foreign institutions in its order, its cleanliness, its arrangement, and its program. What caught the committee's eye was that they saw, even in the classes of the upper baccalaureate, all the pupils unveiled, and many of them without any covering on the head; and more than that, in two of these classes, the men teachers shared the teaching with the women teachers. And how deep was the committee's pleasure when one of these teachers testified that the magazine The Woman's Voice is, in his view, in the front rank of Arabic magazines. The committee's one criticism of the instruction was the holding of gymnastic exercises for the girls without their wearing dress specially meant for physical exercises — the dress that is indispensable if those exercises are to be beneficial to the utmost degree.

There was another thing that astonished the committee and won its great admiration: the head of the kindergarten at Dawhat al-Adab is a specialist Austrian lady, who directs the kindergarten, in which instruction is carried on in the French language.

Finally the committee concluded its visit to Damascus with the honor of a call upon Her Ladyship the First Lady of Syria at the Serail; Mrs. Maria al-Azm and Mrs. Sawaya accompanied us. The committee presented its respects to Her Ladyship and spoke with her of the affairs of the women's movement in Lebanon and Damascus. Then the committee set out on its return to Beirut, escorted by the gracious ladies of Damascus to the beautiful entrance of the capital, where the farewell, at evening, was — like the meeting in the morning — full of affection, understanding, and esteem.