Why Did You Choose Your Profession? (A Reportage)

Among our rising young ladies today are the doctor, the lawyer, the licensed midwife, the teacher, and others. Here the correspondent of "The Woman's Voice" puts her question to a group of these young ladies: "Why did you choose your profession?"

1 — The first to answer this question was Miss Nicole Rebeiz, a lawyer who practices her profession. She says:

"I do not know why I chose the profession of law, and never before today had I put this question to myself; yet when I began studying law, it never for an hour crossed my mind that one day I would put on the "robe"!

Ever since my childhood I preferred the science of law to the science of medicine and the like among the natural sciences, and perhaps the true motives for this were my inclination, at bottom, toward the spiritual and experimental sciences and arts, more than toward the material natural sciences...

The period of study came to an end and I began to practice law. I had believed that my being a young lady would hamper my first steps, but the truth proved the opposite: my colleagues received me with open arms, while the girls showed me such kindness and patience as astonished me and doubled my energy and my desire for a profession I had imagined hard to attain — and I found it within reach of every girl inclined toward it."

2 — Miss Attaf Hamadeh, a teacher at the school of Miss Rida Jureidini, says in answer to this question:

"The day I left school, I felt that I had a duty toward my homeland and my brethren, and I chose teaching above all else because it is among the most honorable professions a girl can take up, especially in our country, where the field of work is narrow before woman.

Yes, the profession of teaching is among the most difficult and most delicate of professions, for the broad wisdom it demands and the precise knowledge of the pupil's psychology and his particular inclinations; but the reward is great — so great that it makes the educator forget the troubles and hardships he has met on the way to preparing a sound generation that will serve its homeland and human society without distinction. The teacher, by enlightening the mind, refining the soul, and guiding the young onto the straight path, closes dark and fearsome prisons. It is he who carries the torch of learning high and guards it against the assaults of the days.

As for the true happiness — nay, the greatest worldly rapture — that every educator feels, it is the sight of the processions of his pupils as stalwart men in the battleground of life, struggling with enlightened minds and broad breasts — struggling for the sake of sacred right.

3 — Dr. Asia Itani is a rising physician, specialized in pediatrics, and she is now on her way to France for further specialization. Here is her answer to the question of "The Woman's Voice":

From my earliest years, under the sway of my tender feelings, I would suffer for a patient who suffered — especially if he called for a doctor and none could be found — and I would wish that God, Mighty and Exalted, would bring forth from me that helping or assisting doctor, so that I might extend to that patient my aid and my skill.

What increased my desire to fulfill my wish was that I found in this calling a humane side, in which one can benefit one's society without being swayed by material gain. So, once I had embraced the idea, I resolved to be that doctor whatever might come.

When what I wanted was accomplished, and I went out into society with my medical diploma, I preferred the branch of motherhood and childhood over all the other branches of medicine, so as to take part in raising the nation of my country and its children with a sound and healthy upbringing.

Today I devote myself to carrying out this program of mine with all the feeling I have been given and all my desire to serve humanity — a sincere service — preferring in it fruitful, useful social work to every material profit. It is enough for me, in this service, to satisfy my conscience and my feeling, and to serve my nation and my country.

4 — Miss Umayya Jadayel is a licensed midwife, and it is enough to say that she is the right hand of Dr. Mustafa Khalidi. Here Miss Jadayel expresses her opinion of her profession and why she chose it. She says:

"My choice of the profession of midwifery was prompted by my instinct, and to satisfy my inclinations and desires — namely, humane service, consoling woman in her most critical hours, easing her pains, and helping her to bring forth a child in whom there may be good for society. It is no secret what sacrifices and responsibilities this profession carries, which none can bear but one whose soul is molded upon the love of work and of sacrifice for the sake of others, and upon watching over their comfort at the times when they are incapable of any act, weak in body and in will.

And my love for children, for being near them, and for helping the mother to care for them before their eyes open to the light of the sun — all these reasons led me to choose this profession.