"The Inspiration of Motherhood"... An Inspiration of Heart and Conscience

In Society

These forty speeches and ten articles, which Mrs. Rose Atallah Shahfa has chosen from an intellectual struggle carried on across a quarter of a century, to compose from them her book The Inspiration of Motherhood, and into which she has poured counsel, guidance, and devotion in the light of experience — these fragrant breaths, aflame with feeling and humanity, with patriotism and national spirit, are worthy to be taken by every Arab woman, and every Arab mother, as a watchword, a beacon, and an example to be followed.

The author says, in dedicating the book:

"Breaths of a heart that have kept me company at different times, a blazing flame in the love of my homeland —

"I offer them to my husband and my children —

"the feeling of a mother who has taken love, service, and devotion for her motto."

What feeling could be more delicate than this feeling, what devotion truer than this devotion, and what sensibility finer than the sensibility of this excellent wife, this generous mother, this nationally minded woman eager for reform, for usefulness, and for the public good?

I have known Rose Shahfa as a woman of letters — composed, moderate, frank, wide of imagination, broad in learning, lofty in her hopes and aspirations.

And I have known her as a fighting, striving woman of politics who never tires of seeking the triumph of woman, the raising of her standing, and her equality with man in rights and duties.

And I have known her as a wise wife, a tender mother, and a mistress of home and family, lofty in character and bearing.

And I have known her as a noble, beneficent doer of good, who has sacrificed much of her life, her health, and her money for the sake of humanity, and for the sake of the society in which she lives.

Thus have I known Rose Shahfa; so I did not wonder that The Inspiration of Motherhood should come from her bearing pearls and treasures — rather I admired it, and the esteem and respect I had harbored for this lady grew greater still in my heart.

Blessed be her hand; may God preserve and keep her, and grant us all success in what makes for the glory of woman and the good of the homeland.