In Society

The Activity of the Syrian Woman
During the Month of December

1 – The Syrian woman took part in the work and activity of the Social Studies Seminar of the Arab States in its third session, which convened in Damascus from December 8 to 20. The subject of this seminar was the means of organizing social solidarity, and the work was distributed among the following committees:

The first committee: research and statistics relating to social solidarity.

The second committee: the effect of economic development on the means of social solidarity.

The third committee: means of financing social-solidarity projects.

The fourth committee: complementary social services, governmental and non-governmental.

The fifth committee: organization and administration.

During the conference the participants visited the following social institutions:

The home for the aged belonging to the Kalima Society and the Salem Institution for Vocational Education, in Aleppo; the charitable home of the Special Governorate and the observation center belonging to the Juvenile Protection Society; the center of the Milk Drop Society; and the social center belonging to the Near East Foundation.

★ The Syrian Arts Society presented an exhibition of oil paintings by the famous Yugoslav artist Mirko Putsusha.

This artist Putsusha was born in the city of Gorpic in 1915, and studied the art of painting in the city of Zagreb, graduating under the famous master Tartaglia Marino. After perfecting his artistic means he devoted himself to depicting the various beautiful scenes of his country. Some months ago he came to Syria and Lebanon as a visitor and was captivated by their enchanting scenery, and among the fruits of this visit of his are some of the canvases on display. Mr. Putsusha pursues in his pictorial style all that is new; he does not adopt a single method, but strives always toward creation and perfection. Among the features of his art are an interest in light and a care for colors, quiet shadows, and forms. He is a realist artist, not extreme, far from the tendencies of the excessive, and close to the moderates and the conservatives in art.

This artist has admired our country, its brilliant sun and its vivid colors, as he has admired the generosity of its people and their fine hospitality.

It is expected that this artist will come to Beirut and present another exhibition there, in his certainty that art is an ideal means of drawing peoples closer together and tightening the bonds of friendship among them, and in the hope that the Lebanese public will find in his works and canvases an artistic pleasure and a message borne by Yugoslav art to the Lebanese.

★ The Zahra Literary Circle opened its new literary season on the evening of the sixteenth of December. At that session Dr. Omar Farroukh delivered a paper entitled "Historical Education and Its Effect on the Life of Peoples," in which he explained the role of traditions in the evolution of nations. There followed a heated discussion in which Messrs. Ahmad al-Futayyih, Wasif al-Baroudi, Dr. Sami al-Dahhan, Munir al-Rayyes, and Ahmad al-Hanafi took part, along with Miss Inaya Ramzi and Mrs. Thuraya al-Hafez.

★ On the eighteenth of December the Syrian Arts Society invited guests to a literary and artistic session at which Dr. Jawdat al-Rikabi, professor of Andalusian literature at the Syrian University, presented a literary talk entitled "In the Embrace of Andalusia," in which he explained the spiritual refinement in lyrical literary production. Then the Andalusian muwashshahat troupe presented selections of that art, after which the great poet Abu Salma al-Karmi offered, from the overflow of his lyric and patriotic letters, delicate and beautiful poems that were received with the utmost approval and rapture. Miss Nahida Attar also presented on the piano pieces of the world's classical music.

★ Mrs. Wadia Hourani Makdisi left us for the United States on the 27th of last month to deliver a series of lectures in American institutes and organizations, lasting seven weeks, in which she will treat the questions of the Middle East as a whole, and speak in particular of Palestine, the Eastern woman, and the renaissance the lecturer has witnessed over the course of twenty years.

This journey Mrs. Makdisi undertakes at the invitation of the society of the American Friends of the Middle East. The society had earlier sent, for the same purpose, an Egyptian delegate, Mrs. Hussein, and from time to time it sends certain American personalities to visit the Middle East and to acquaint American public opinion with its true condition.

Mrs. Wadia Makdisi will conclude her lectures on March 21 and pass through England to visit her father, and is then to return to rejoin her children in Beirut shortly before the glorious feast of Easter.

The magazine The Woman's Voice hopes that Mrs. Makdisi will succeed in her delicate national mission, so that her voice may rise high in uncovering truths most of which have until now remained buried and obscure.

★ In the past two days the newspapers of the capital have carried a report to the effect that the Ministry of the Interior has submitted to His Excellency the President of the Republic a decree appointing the members of the Municipal Council of the city of Beirut.

The report confirms the rumor that the list submitted contains four ladies, representing most of the Lebanese communities. They are: Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura, Mrs. Laure Tabet, and Mrs. Ellen Rihan; as for the fourth member, she is Mrs. Najla Saab, though certain obstacles still stand in her way...

Believing as we do that the Lebanese woman not only equals man but surpasses him in familiarity with municipal affairs, we hope that she will accordingly render to the Lebanese capital practical services which her predecessors have neglected; that this gracious gesture on the part of the Ministry of the Interior will be a good omen for an era in which reform and renewal prevail; and that woman will prove, to those who doubt her capacities, that she is worthy of every equality and every esteem.

★ Among the news of the activity of the Cénacle Libanais is the lecture of Mrs. Emily Fares Ibrahim on the subject: "The Heart of Life through Memories." Her talk was a talk from heart to heart; it charmed hearts, awakened feelings, and opened before the imagination, the mind, and the spirit of the listeners beautiful vistas drawn from "the heart of life" — truly, vistas which none but those of quick wit and alertness of heart perceive.

In her talk, Mrs. Emily Fares Ibrahim knocked at the door of memories, the memories of life itself, and began to lay bare before her audience of listeners pages she had been keeping to herself between the two covers of a deaf, mute envelope.

She began her memoirs with the newborn — and the newborn is her son — how is she to guard him from the dangers of life encircling him?

And childhood is a second link in the chain of life, following birth...

After treating, in her fourth and fifth memoirs, the harms and evils of war upon the declaration of the Second World War, the lecturer passes to the most delicate aspect of the aspects of life, namely the problem of youth, the hardest stage of life's stages.

Thus the lecture of Mrs. Emily Fares Ibrahim at the Cénacle Libanais was new of its kind, treating the subtlest of deep psychological matters in an engaging womanly style.

★ Among the joys of last month was the wedding of Miss Aida Ibrahim Shehadeh to the young Jean Wadih Abou Mansour, one of the notables of the Lebanese colony in Brazil.

The wedding celebration took place in the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George, and the official ceremonies of congratulation were held during the first four days of the opening of the year at the home of the bride's father, Dr. Ibrahim Shehadeh.

Soon the bridal pair will leave us for São Paulo, Brazil, the center of the groom's business. The Woman's Voice extends its warmest congratulations to the bride and groom and to the bride's parents, Dr. Shehadeh and his wife Mrs. Munira, and wishes the young couple a blessed journey and floods of happiness and love.

★ At the monthly meeting of the Red Cross, held as usual at the Presidential Palace, Miss Eva Helou presented a report on the glorious deeds performed by the doctors and nurses of the Lebanese Red Cross in the rescue operations of the steamship Champollion.

His Excellency the President of the Republic attended the meeting and, in a few brief words, thanked the board of the Red Cross for the tremendous efforts expended in this great humanitarian work; he then decorated the Marquise de Voguë, president of the institution, with the gilded Lebanese Medal of Merit, which is to be presented in turn to the school of nurses.

And following its traditional custom, the Lebanese Red Cross held its annual celebration for the distribution of children's layettes to a thousand of the children of soldiers, gendarmes, policemen, and the poor, in the presence of the president and all the working members and the senior men of the army and the gendarmerie. At this gathering Dr. Saniyya Habboub Nakkash spoke, presenting these gifts with a fine address in which she noted the good relations existing between the army and the other security forces on the one hand and the Red Cross on the other; her address met with general approval.

★ At the opening of the current year, literary and social circles in Beirut were surprised by a happy piece of news: the engagement of the proprietor of al-Diyar, Mr. Hanna Ghosn, to the charming Miss Jacqueline, only daughter of the poet Georges Saydah.

The engagement party was the utmost in simplicity, confined to the nearest relatives.

The Woman's Voice congratulates the two understanding young people, and hopes that their joys will be brought to completion, ending in the settling of the poet Saydah and his esteemed family among us in Lebanon...

★ At the annual celebration of "Rawdat al-Fayha" in Tripoli, the opening address was delivered by the president of the association, Mrs. Aliyya Zouk Shawki, who welcomed those present and alluded to the progressive stages the Rawda has traversed in the course of a year thanks to the efforts of its members and of those zealous for the good. Then a motion picture by Mr. Najib Hankash was shown, its subject: "People's Faults," and Mr. Halim al-Roumi nourished the vocal and artistic side.

The poet Georges Saydah recited a poem for this occasion, which the reader will find on page 18 of this issue.

★ In the address she delivered in the West Hall of the American University, at the invitation of the Women's League, Mrs. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit improvised a speech lasting about an hour, interrupted by applause in appreciation of the force of her words and of their strong hold upon the souls of her women listeners.

In this address, she urged the Lebanese woman to hold fast to Eastern principles and not to be swept wholly into the Western current.

Here she is, counseling the women of Lebanon to preserve their Eastern character and not to abandon it, saying: "Borrow from the civilization of the West, its science and its enterprise, insofar as they serve you in offering your share to world civilization."

"The Eastern woman, now that she has undone her bonds and been emancipated, must turn in sincerity to solving the tangled social problems under which our homelands labor."

She then appealed to the educated woman not to confine her efforts to the circles near at hand, but to extend her endeavors to the lower class — to the wretched rabble of the people, who stand in urgent need of the sincere woman's guidance and of her compassion.

And she said finally: "Let woman work to prevent a third world war, to spread justice and right in the world, and to build a better world."

* The Syrian woman of letters Miss Inaya Ramzi lectured in the hall of the Young Muslim Women's Club, on January 23; her subject was: "The Psychology of Woman," in which she analyzed that delicate, sensitive psychology which people reckon a riddle defying solution!

In the coming issue we shall print excerpts from this feminine study, treated by a woman's pen that holds its place in Syrian literary circles.

* The al-Urwa al-Wuthqa Society at the American University of Beirut held its annual celebration on Thursday, January 15, 1953. At this celebration Miss In'am al-Saghir spoke, giving a detailed account of the struggle of the European woman and then of the Arab woman, and showing her worth as a member in the field of civilization. Miss Samira Abu Ghazaleh then spoke, reciting a poem of her own composition prepared especially for this occasion. She was followed by Miss Intisar Tabash, who delivered an address setting forth woman's worth in society and her influence upon those around her. Nor would man consent to be left out of this festival: Mr. Muti' Abara presented a full address on woman in Arab history.

* On Thursday, January 29, 1953, the Children's Welfare Society held, at its fourth dispensary in Ras Beirut, a reception for the wife of the august President of the Republic, at which it acquainted her with some of the work the society is carrying out. After the secretary delivered the address of welcome, she recounted a summary of the valuable works to which the society has dedicated itself, and it met with the approval of all the guests. Afterwards everyone repaired to a sumptuous buffet prepared by the hands of the ladies who manage the society's affairs.

Khalde airport witnessed, on Sunday, January 25, a great gathering of women, come to receive Her Majesty Queen Zein, mother of King Hussein, sovereign of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It was the first time the Queen Mother had met with such a warm reception from all the women's organizations in Lebanon.

In fact, the women's organizations that flocked to the airport comprised more than sixty ladies representing the choice elite of the leaders of the women's movement, at their head Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura, president of the General Arab Women's Union.

Her Majesty Queen Zein was on her way back from Geneva, where she had spent some months in repose. During her stay there her son, His Majesty King Hussein, visited her; she also visited England, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II invited her to dine at her table, out of respect for her great person.

Her Majesty the Queen stayed at the Saint-Georges Hotel, where she officially received a delegation of the women's organizations, and expressed to them her deep emotion at the warm reception she had met with from her Lebanese sisters — a reception which, if it proves anything, proves love and sincerity of feeling.

Queen Zein resumed her journey to Amman on Sunday afternoon, after thanking the Lebanese women for their feeling, and wishing she had had time enough to become further acquainted with each lady individually, to strengthen the bonds of friendship between the two countries, and to cooperate in raising the standing of the Arab woman and taking her by the hand.