Society News in Syria
* There was recently founded in Damascus a literary club under the name of the "Sukayna Club"—immortalizing the name of the famous Arab woman of letters and critic Sukayna, daughter of al-Husayn. This club aims to raise the level of letters and to strive for the growth and spread of literary culture and literary taste in Syria, and to encourage men of letters, to strengthen the bonds of familiarity, acquaintance, and cooperation among them, and to print and publish their production. It likewise intends to carry over the precious inspirations of the West's literary production into the Arabic language, and of the Arab East's production into foreign languages, as one form of national publicity for modern Arab thought; and also to keep contact and cooperate with similar bodies and circles in the sister Arab countries, so as to organize literary festivals and competitions, as a spur to those of outstanding merit.
The club counts among its founders a choice company of the men of letters and lovers of letters of Damascus, among them: Dr. As'ad Mahfal, secretary-general of the Presidency of the Republic; Mr. Fuad al-Shayib, director-general of publicity and information; Mr. Izzat al-Nuss, professor of Arab history at the Syrian University; Dr. Hikmat Hashim, its professor of philosophy; the poet Abd al-Karim al-Karmi, known as Abu Salma; the journalist Munir al-Rayyis, owner of the newspaper al-Liwa; Mr. Shakir Mustafa; and Emir Yahya al-Shihabi. And among the ladies: the writer Thurayya al-Hafiz al-Rayyis; the poetess
Aziza Harun; Dr. Zahida Ibrahim Pasha; Dr. Mawziya al-Quwatli; Mrs. Inaya Ramzi; and the storyteller Mrs. Ulfat Idlibi Omar Pasha—and others of both. Everyone in Damascus looks with an optimistic eye and a hopeful spirit toward the activity and the services that are to be expected of these bonds.
2 – The Women's Mabarra Society in Damascus, which counts among its members a number of the friends of The Woman's Voice in Damascus—among them Miss Malak Kuzbari, Mrs. Layla Bikri Diyab, Mrs. Muhiba Malki al-Dasuqi, the Misses Lamya Kilani and Ihsan Ish, and Dr. Mawziya Quwatli—held its annual charity gala on the stage of the Cinema Dimashq, and in its sweet and delightful hours it offered colorful bouquets of splendid art. It presented the play "The Vagrant Girl," whose roles were acted by ladies and young ladies of the society; then it offered varied numbers of the beautiful Arab Andalusian dance called the samah dance, performed by girls of the Dawhat al-Adab school in their enchanting Andalusian dress and with their swaying figures. The singer Mrs. Su'ad Muhammad also took part, offering masterpieces of her lofty art.
The party went on until a late hour of the night, in which the Damascus public drank brimming cups of pleasure, rapture, delight, and splendor; and all applauded the tremendous efforts made by the members of the society to make that party a sign among the first fruits of social activity in the beautiful Fayha.
What deserves mention here is that the proceeds of this party, which reached nine thousand Syrian liras, will be set aside for the noble humane purposes of the Mabarra, foremost among them the care of juvenile vagrant girls: working for their education and the raising of their moral and social level, treating their mental and psychological disorders, and guiding them soundly in a way that guarantees their protection from returning to a life of vagrancy and crime, and secures for them an honorable, happy, and industrious future.
3 – The Women's Cultural Forum Society issued invitations to the first cultural session of its season of activity for 1953–1954. In it Dr. Adel al-Awwa, professor of philosophy at the Syrian University, spoke of the perplexity of modern man, contested by divergent schools of thought and pulled about by differing philosophical currents; and he expounded at length materialist Marxism and realist existentialism. After him spoke the woman of letters Mrs. Munira Ali al-Mahayri, who carried her listeners on the wing of her lofty prose and the back of her creative pen into the gardens of Arab women's letters, and led them about among fragrant, perfumed blossoms, reviewing the merits and characteristics of the writing of Mayy Ziadeh, Mary Ajami, Nazik al-Mala'ika, Widad Sakakini, and others; she presented well and described finely.
4 – The Syrian Society for the Arts
in Damascus presented its first exhibition of oil and watercolor paintings by the visiting artists Zareh Kaplan and Nubar Sabbaghian. The artist Zareh began his study of drawing in Cairo at the hands of Italian masters. At sixteen years of age he left Cairo for Paris, to study