Mrs. Edvick Jureidini Shayboub, editorial secretary of The Woman's Voice, paid a visit to the sister country of Iraq last month, and in the course of her visit she made contact with various social circles in general and women's circles in particular. She has returned bearing many memories and impressions, some of which she sets down in this article.
... I am in Baghdad, in the mid-morning of April, breathing in the spring as it wafts from the green gardens, stretching generously along the two banks of the Tigris...
Spring in Baghdad is two weeks: the first of them touching the shiver of winter, the last the first heralds of the heat. The roses are laid bare, opening with wondrous speed — colors and scents — perfuming the air and breathing vitality and rapture into the people...
... I am in Baghdad, living two blissful weeks under the wing of a tender mother, and gathering with friends whose faces have been absent from my eyes for nine years — and behold, the old friendship is still alive, thriving in our breasts... and behold, the days pass swiftly as beautiful, companionable times pass, hour crowding upon hour, and day crowding upon day...
Blessed be the land of the two rivers, that brings forth such warm devotion; and blessed be the water of the Tigris, that waters friendships to such fullness and keeps them well-watered and evergreen...
At the Palace of Flowers
... By a happy coincidence, my first visit in Baghdad was to Her Majesty Queen Aliya, mother of His Majesty King Faisal II. The capital of al-Rashid was still in festival, for her beloved monarch
had, a few days before, returned to Baghdad for his spring holiday.
I was in the company of my friend Mrs. Maida al-Haydari Mahmoud; the automobile carried us along a long road flanked by palm trees, and it stops at the end of the road before the Palace of Flowers.
... And after the first glance at the palace, fronted by its garden, my soul cries out within me:
"God's mercy on the one who gave you this name — perhaps it was the great grandfather, His Majesty Faisal I, who was known for sound taste and delicate feeling..."
For a long time I have admired the palace's name, and wondered how far the name and the thing named were in harmony — and behold, it is total and complete... For the roses, still in their first budding, look out upon the palace with something of a virgin shyness, spreading their fragrance without extravagance...
And the guards at the palace entrance are like the palms of Baghdad in straightness and height of stature...
And the white marble columns at the palace entrance, and the polished marble spreading its floor — the purest that the quarries of Italy have brought forth...
... Inside the Palace of Flowers the visitor is bathed in a feeling of ease and good cheer. The prevailing color is green, accompanied by light rose-colored curtains, and at the head of the hall is a royal crown ornamented in rose as well.
One comprehensive glance at the furnishings and decoration leaves the visitor all but certain that the artistic designer entrusted with furnishing and adorning the palace must surely be an Englishman... The shaded
electric lights stand in the corners in charming shapes, casting sweet shadows upon the furniture and the floors of the rooms...
*
Here is Her Majesty Queen Aliya, at the head of the hall, tall and slender, in an elegant black dress. Here she stands for her lady visitors and welcomes them with a beaming face.
... In the hall are some twenty ladies. One group offers its greetings and another takes its leave, and Her Majesty is attentive, answering questions in Arabic, and resorting at times to Turkish, so numerous are those who speak it in Iraq.
Among the visitors are some of the Sharifian ladies, kinswomen of the royal family, and a company of the wives of Their Excellencies the ministers and the deputies,
Woman: Body and Soul — by Dr. Georges Hanna
The long-awaited book has appeared
Woman: Body and Soul
by Dr. Georges Hanna
Publishers
Dar al-Ahad — Beirut
To be ordered from the publishers and from the Farajallah Publications Company
Price per copy
200 piasters, or 230 millièmes, mils, or fils