Beside this letter you will find the decision taken by the jury in the story contest which this magazine held.
It is a decision that was no less a shock to the writers who entered the contest than it was to The Woman's Voice itself. It cut to the heart of the women who edit this magazine and watch over it that our well-known women of letters, and our well-known men of letters, should not have taken part in the contest; and that the art of the story among us should still lag behind the caravan of the other literary arts, notwithstanding the standing it enjoys in the literatures of other nations. The result was what it was: not a single story came near to winning the approval of the jury — which includes, as you see, storytellers who have their own standing in the story-literature of this country, and a man of letters who has written on the story, its old and its new, and its present.
And if The Woman's Voice is sorry for the conclusion which the jury reached, it has not yet despaired of the existence of buried possibilities, and it still hopes that the imprisoned talents will break loose from their tether. It therefore grants the jury's wish, and extends the term of the contest to the end of October 1950, full of hope, as the jury is, 'that the contestants will have better luck' this time.
At six o'clock on the evening of Friday, the nineteenth of May, 1950, the committee composed of Messrs. Tawfiq Awwad, Ahmad Makki, and Musa Sulayman met to judge the story competition to which the magazine The Woman's Voice had invited entries. After examining the stories, thirty-three in number, the committee found that none among them deserved the prize.
It therefore asks The Woman's Voice to extend the deadline of the competition, hoping that the contestants will have better luck.
Tawfiq Awwad Ahmad Makki Musa Sulayman
Issue Six Year Six June 1950
Miss Lam'an al-Haydari
• An Iraqi young woman.
• Fair of complexion, green of eye.
• Inclines toward classical reading, and toward music.
• An active member of the Iraqi Red Crescent.
• Lived a year in England, and admires the Englishwoman in her private and public life.
• Comes often to summer in Lebanon, and was once elected beauty queen at Bhamdoun.
• At home in Baghdad's social life; she loves dancing — the waltz and the tango — and has no liking for the modern American dancing.
• She wishes the Arab woman equality of rights, but wants her before all else to be mistress of a home, not to jostle with man in Parliament.
A monthly women's magazine published by
the Lebanese Women's League
P.O. Box 1284 — Beirut — Lebanon
Responsible director:
Heneni Tarcha
Editorial Committee
Zaheya Ayoub
Evelyn Hitti Kanaan
In'am al-Saghir
Administrative Committee
Afifi Majdalani
Salwa Mahmasani Moumina
Nazik Sarkis
Laure Tabet
Nahiya Ghalmiyya
*
Managed and published by Dar al-Kitab
Editor-in-chief: Fouad Suleiman
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