Since woman is man's half and the backbone of society, she has had a great influence in guiding the rising generation, prepar-

ing a sound generation, consolidating the pillars of social life, and steadying the foundations of families one and all. So, in addition to singing of her beauty and her charm, her magic and her allure, and her possession of a sufficient share of shrewdness and intelligence, the poets and men of letters have called upon her to tear the standing veil that bars her from gazing and leaping toward the heights; they have defended her and her precincts, and lavished upon her such devotion, sincerity, love, and energy as spurred her and prompted her to demand the rights which religion entitles her to enjoy in all ease and gladness.

And al-Rusafi is one of those free, realistic thinkers who plunged into the frays of debate and the depths of controversy to defend woman and her usurped rights with warmth and ardor, and showed what strength and competence she possesses — the two that can lead society in a fruitful lead-ership carrying prosperity and reform — and said of her what may be a matter of pride and reliance in the cause of her advancement and elevation, the raising of her worth and the lifting of her standing, that she might share with man the task and the endeavors laid on the shoulders of societies, in which, were it not for woman's arduous services and her sacred duties, there would never

be a happy life in society at all.

If we cast a glance at the diwan of al-Rusafi, who called for the emancipation of woman and her release from the shackles that weigh her down — supporting in this the reforming Egyptian writer, the late Qasim Amin, leader of the women's renaissance, emancipator of woman and her first pioneer — we

would find that he — al-Rusafi, we mean — composed eight poems on woman and what concerns her, namely: "Woman in the East," "Our Women," "The Freedom of Marriage among Us," "The Muslim Woman and Education," "The Forsaken Mothers," "To the Veilers," and "The Abasement of Woman among Us." All these poems, besides their del-icacy and sweetness, their humane stamp and the artistic beauty that marks them, we find overflowing with vexation and complaint, at the confrontation of the poet-thinker — who consumed himself in the cause of freedom of thought and offered

himself as a ransom for the sake of a free life — with the bitter reality which admits that woman does not enjoy her rights.

And in his complaint and vexation the poet is right to the farthest bounds of right; for a free life does not ordain what contradicts it and brings it to the brink of the abyss, nor does it desire what invites pessimism and grumbling in any circum-stance whatever; rather the good and honorable life ordains what suits and harmonizes, just as it yields the best and finest of results. And the resounding cries that al-Rusafi loosed and the loud screams he sent up from his depths are a crushing argument and a strong proof of his full feeling for right and reality, and of his deep faith in the greatness of the noble, deep-rooted woman whom human society ought never to do without — nor without her aptitude, her energy, and her readiness in many fields and arenas.

In the poem "Woman in the East" al-Rusafi grieves — a lump in his throat and a moan in his breast — for this rigid East: because its people cling to the husks rather than the honest kernel, flounder in delusions and stumble in the mires of superstitions and mumbo-jumbo, live a life of degradation, hurt, and misery, and refuse to walk the way of the sensible. So they denied women their right and forced them to remain squatting in the corners of the houses, claiming that they are fit for nothing else, and forbade them to go out — and if there was any occasion for going out, then only in the black cloak that spreads weariness and pain, and turns light into darkness and white into black. So he says:

What ails the people of the East, in anguish, living in humiliation and misery? That is