Letters

• This is a letter overflowing with pain. It is a cry sent up by a prisoner from the depths of his darkness, appealing to woman — who worked to remove the foreign intruder and to lift the nightmare of oppression from the breast of the country — to work today to lift the nightmares of pain pressing upon the breasts of these prisoners who live in the darkness of chains, that they may return to their mothers and their children. And we in our turn raise this complaint to those responsible, in the hope that they may look into the condition of these poor men:

Madam, proprietor of The Woman's Voice,

This is a resounding cry rising from souls that have been stricken by injustice and grief, and have endured pains and ailments, want and deprivation.

Madam,

The greatest credit, in the days of struggle, belongs to you, in removing the intruder; therefore we come to appeal to your conscience and your heart, that you may stand by us in our harsh ordeal, so that we may be released and return to our mothers and our homeless children.

Several occasions have come to the country: the first, the unveiling of the Rock of Evacuation; the second, the return of the remains of Emir Bashir to the soil of the homeland; the third, complete independence; and lastly, the renewal of the presidency for His Excellency the exalted President of the Republic.

Hence we have the right to demand our release, that we may return to the service of our homeland and work against every aggression upon the homeland.

Your tenderness, your compassion, and your aid.

The prisoner of the Citadel — the Damascene journalist
Hasan Adib al-Shawkatli

• From Miss Daad Kayali, as she gazes at a picture of the late King Faisal I lying on his deathbed. In this piece Miss Kayali sends a splendid remembrance that awakens in souls the echo of that era in which Faisal the Great was the goal toward which Arab eyes were turned.

"O picture laden with memories, you are truly a book filled with hopes and dreams.

Ah, picture: I can scarcely bear to look at you, for you are too majestic and too holy even to be looked upon..

And you, O closed mouth, sunk in a sea of silence and stillness:

What sweet, stately speech used to pour from between your lips, O mouth?

Alas! Where is that word you so often uttered, giving safety to the fearful and comfort to the stranger? 'My brother.'

What a magnificent word, embracing humanity and containing it.

What a noble word, coming from between the lips of a noble king!

Ah, his quiet heart: how long you beat with love for a generous people, and how long you suffered for its sake!.."

• And this is a letter from Mosul, from Miss Ramziyya Ahmad Izza, sent to one of the members of the editorial committee of The Woman's Voice... It is indeed a splendid piece, in which appears the spirit of the ardent Iraqi girl who has begun to feel her national duty as strongly as any girl can feel it.

"And how magnificent was that Arab mother whom Miss Ramziyya presented as a noble example of national loftiness.

And The Woman's Voice is grateful to Mrs. A. Najjar for allowing it to publish some passages of this letter:

"What your letter contained of news, and of what the Lebanese people are doing for beloved Palestine, delighted me and filled my heart... This is our hope... God bless you and fulfill the hopes of all, and spare us the evil of the usurping enemy... For we are all equal in this field. The homeland is one, the country is dear, and the defense must be shared, just as the help must come from all — otherwise death is more fitting for us...

I see the Iraqi girl blazing with enthusiasm, the blood running hot and burning in her veins... asking to take part and to help in the Palestine question, however dear the price... And in saying this I make no exception of the Iraqi woman — unlettered or educated — for all are loyal Arab women and encouraging countrywomen... Here is an example:

I saw an Arab mother at the railway station bidding farewell to her only son, who was going off to the struggle in Palestine... She stood firm of heart, her eye never blinking... I heard her, as did everyone who was present, encouraging him with burning words... And more than that, when the train moved off, carrying away the piece of her heart... she began now to trill with joy and now to cry out, saying, 'Take courage, my son, and raise your country's head high.' So tell me, by God, how does she differ from al-Khansa?...

This is one example I recount to you out of many examples that prove the extent of the national consciousness and the patriotic spirit at work in the souls of all... May God fulfill the hopes of all...

The Children's Protection Society, Mosul branch, began about three months ago to collect donations to help Palestine, and the members of the administrative body, with their president, the wife of the mayor, went around to every house and knocked on every door until they had collected a sum of nearly 2,200 dinars, among it a gold lira and some bracelets and rings, etc.... And now the same society is helping the Red Crescent Society, the men's branch in Mosul, whose president is the elder Khayr al-Din Bey al-Umari (the mayor), by buying cloth and sewing women's clothing for the refugee women, and likewise sewing clothes for the soldiers, from shirts to underclothing, etc.... And so, after the examinations, which will end with the end of the current month, all the schools and the institutions of the Children's Protection Society and the Red Crescent will become houses of sewing and cutting to help Palestine, and tomorrow morning we shall begin the actual work."

• And from Miss Fatima Abbas of Latakia, a letter about the Alawite woman — that being who is all but forgotten, all but a neglected thing in Syrian society. In this article Miss Fatima Abbas reveals that rich soul in the Alawite woman, who wishes to express her will, but society always rises against her.

Miss Abbas said, among the things she said in her good letter:

"The Alawite woman has not yet entered the arena of social life, while we see woman in Lebanon and Damascus and in all the Arab lands founding associations and building up societies to study the question of woman in the Arab world and to bring her to her rights in full. The Alawite youth on this Syrian coast possesses an inspiration, a genius, and a creative gift beyond that of any other Syrian citizen, and the reason for that lies in the beautiful nature, the pure air, and the quiet, simple life. Towering mountains, white and gentle; a sweet, refreshing breeze; green, dewy slopes; rich, extended plains; fresh, clear water; a blue, dreaming shore; and moist, delicious fruit. All these things are among the qualifications for the possibilities of inspiration in the youth of this generation. But alas, neither the young man nor the girl has thought of reforming the home — this home which cannot be reformed except by reforming woman. Woman is the first school of the rising generation and

the first teacher of society, and so long as she remains isolated from social life, this beautiful face of Syria will remain backward."

I have known some Alawite women whom time allowed to appear on the stage of social life, and they took very fine positions and held opinions on life, on literature, on politics, and on every important matter, no less than the opinion of the best cultured woman in the Arab lands. But Alawite society looked askance at these women's participation in social life, went to extremes in its insistence on woman's seclusion, and heaped censure upon her. I do not blame the reactionary class in the mountain for its shrinking and its withdrawal into itself; but I direct all blame and reproach at the present generation, which has gone on humoring that faction as it pleases — young men and girls who drank from the springs of modern learning and looked at life as it ought to be seen, yet remained just as they were, not advancing a hair's breadth in their social life.

Some young men have said to me: What Alawite girl is fit to be the life companion of a young man who has known modern life and known its adornments? And if such a girl were found, could she provide him with the life he wants and craves and has grown used to? So I said to him: And do you know an Alawite young man fit to be the companion in life of a simple Alawite village girl — able to guide her in a modern direction and be a teacher to her, finding in her a modest, obedient pupil, and then to stamp her with the stamp he desires?

♦ And from Miss Adiba Kabba of Homs, a piece entitled "Happiness," in which she expressed those deep states in which a person feels a tranquility and a well-being of unfathomed depth, springing from the depths of the contented, tranquil soul. Miss Kabba points out that happiness is an inner thing, which a person cannot obtain from outside; if happiness is not in our consciences and our hearts, we search for it in vain among people.. and that a person cannot be happy unless he makes of his life a generous giving.

"A person feels true rest — rest of soul and of mind — when he can spend all the powers of that soul, with the thought and creativity and capacity for exhausting, continuous work deposited within it, to create a work, to bring forth a thought into the world of existence in living form, to adorn what is around him with constant production!

When this person can make of his life a generous gift and a continuous giving; when the rays of his strength can master strong souls, directing them and adding to their glow and their radiance;

and weak souls, strengthening them and training them for fruitful work;

and dead, extinguished souls, breathing life into them and creating them anew — then these souls feel at rest, because they satisfy what life demands of them; and life is struggle, life is work, life is vitality.

For what is the worth of a living person except by his work, by the noble ends he sets before himself and the lofty principles his soul harbors and strives to realize? And the greater the sacrifice and the greater the effort, the higher the worth of his work, and the more complete the rest he feels."

♦ And from Safita, from Miss Fatima Abd al-Karim, a letter that is truly a literary piece in its feeling, its warmth, and its ardor.

And The Woman's Voice thanks Miss Abd al-Karim for her precious confidence in it; The Woman's Voice strives only to be always as truth and goodness would have it.

Our beloved, illustrious magazine The Woman's Voice is the burning torch that lights the road before the Arab woman — the road hedged with thorns and fraught with dangers and terrors; the road of the distinguished future along which the Arab woman advances with zeal and ardor toward a coveted goal that has beckoned to her for generations without her ever attaining it or knowing anything about it, until she had almost forgotten its name — and it is nothing but freedom, which frees her from worn-out, antiquated traditions and from the superstitions and legends they have woven around her, making her stagnant of mind and deficient in it, able to live only by her emotion — that is, mere passions that melt and dry up after a while under the burning sun of life, as the dews of night melt at sunrise and the leaves of autumn dry in the blaze of high summer. So this blessed magazine was the first of the Arab magazines to let the world know that the Arab woman walks beside man in cutting through the stages of life, and that in her Eastern soul are treasures of genius overflowing with abundant, gushing springs, creating what the hand of extinction is powerless to erase and building of civilizations what the hand of eternity is unable to set down....

And beyond that, it is the best bridge over which the Arab woman has crossed, coming out of her silent, hollow isolation into the world of openness and good cheer. By this it has earned the Arab woman's thanks, and it has become her duty to support it materially and morally as far as she can find a way. Therefore I hope you will count me among its supporters. Farewell.