Women's Activity in Damascus

• There has been founded in Damascus a league of graduates of the higher institutes — under the name of the Social Circle of Graduates of the Higher Institutes — which has taken premises on Abu Rummaneh Street. The first fruit of its cultural activity was the lecture given by Dr. George Haddad, professor of the history of civilization at the Syrian University, under the title "The Mission of University Graduates." He explained that their mission, once they have armed themselves with sound learning, with solid culture, and with the moral qualities and habits that accord with true learning and culture, is a mission of struggle in the cause of knowledge, goodness, and truth in all walks of life, in all manifestations of civilization, and in all fields of work: in administration, in professional work, in social service, and likewise in scientific research.

• The Social Circle of Graduates of the Higher Institutes issued invitations to a symposium on the problems of the Arab home — the first of a series of symposia which the Circle will hold in succession, and which will treat the social and national problems from which our society suffers.

The first speaker was Miss Inayat Ramzi, secretary of the Social Circle of Graduates of the Higher Institutes. She recalled how the university graduates of the past lay in a spiritual slumber, heedless in mind and feeling of popular cultural guidance and of social service — whereas the distinction of the graduate lies not in the acquisition of knowledge during one stage of life, but is a spiritual mark and an intellectual direction, a delicacy of feeling, an abundance of sentiment, a splendor of giving and a beauty of sacrifice. For this reason the graduates cannot stand with folded arms before the intellectual, social, and emotional currents; otherwise it would be a squandering of the truth of their mission, since there is no force greater than the force of the graduates of the higher institutes in guiding society and solving its problems — especially in a society such as ours, ruled by spontaneity, arbitrariness, chaos of temperament, and stagnation of social feeling. She showed how individual studies and personal opinions in such vital social and national questions are of little avail, and are not safe from error, fallacy, and excess; hence the Circle judged it good that these questions be treated in symposia in which a number of people of judgment and experience take part.

She then introduced Dr. Abd al-Karim al-Yafi, professor of sociology at the Syrian University, to direct the first symposium, on the problems of the Arab home. And no wonder that the care of the family and the study of its problems should be the starting point of social work and social reform, for the family is the important social cell, and the happy home is the first moral influence in the social body — indeed, in humanity. Dr. al-Yafi surveyed in broad lines the cause of the ills and the source of the maladies in the structure of the family, at the stage of its founding and after it, and in its relation to society; he also examined the aspects of the Arab home's strength and its virtues, calling for the reform of the former and the buttressing of the latter. The audience then exchanged views on the matter.

• A large delegation of the ladies and young ladies of the Women's Union in Damascus called upon His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Hashim al-Atassi; His Excellency the Prime Minister, Mr. Sabri al-Asali; His Excellency the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Dr. Nazim al-Qudsi; and His Excellency the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Ali Buzo. It carried to them the legitimate demands of the Syrian woman, and her desire that the constitutional articles of the constitution of 1950 relating to the Syrian woman's right in elections be amended in a form that would entitle her to elect and to be elected, so that she may carry out her mission in the national and social field in full, at the man's side. In the course of its meetings with the officials, the delegation also set forth the necessity of enacting special legislation to regulate cases of divorce and plurality of marriage, in a form that would prevent the ruin of the family and the scattering of the children except in limited cases of necessity — this to preserve the structure of Syrian society from harmful social evils.

• The Department of Social Affairs in the Ministry of National Economy, supervised by the energetic Mrs. Hayat Malki, has arranged a special day for the celebration of Syrian Mother's Day, after the practice of the advanced countries of the world; and the Department of Social Affairs has chosen the Friday falling in the second week of May of each year as the date for celebrating this day.

The Department has prepared a special program for this day in cooperation with the Ministries of Education and of the Interior, the Special Governorate of the City of Damascus, the Directorate of Propaganda, News, and Broadcasting, and the women's associations and the bodies working in the social field, so that the celebration may reach the height of splendor and be commensurate with the standing of the mother — the eternal source of life — in Syrian society. On this day the Ministry of the Interior will present the Syrian Order of Merit of the Excellent Class to her who wins the title of Mother of Syria for the year 1954 — this by the inspiration of the Syrian constitution, which provided for the necessity of protecting and safeguarding the family and of encouraging offspring and marriage. The Directorate of Social Affairs has asked its departments in the Syrian governorates to make the necessary preparations for celebrating this day according to special programs to be drawn up for the purpose.

• With the coming of the lush, enchanting spring, the Syrian Society for the Arts began presenting its many-colored artistic programs. The first of these was a festival for the famous composer Giuseppe Verdi, at which Miss Inayat Ramzi spoke of Verdi, the artist of society, who gave from his art fire and light; of the genius of this inspired composer; and of his art, which was an effective instrument in guiding the masses, whetting resolves, stirring minds, and fixing the goal, at a time when Italy stood in need of just such a clear goal and of deep faith in it.

The lecturer dwelt at length on the analysis of Verdi's patriotic music, in which he portrayed most splendidly that period of Italy's history through which he lived — the period of unity and independence — and on the explanation of his national operas, which came as a clear mirror upon which were reflected the events of that critical period of Italy's life. In them he depicted the existing conditions within what they ought to be, so that there emerged a picture of life as it is and as it should be — a tremendous world of present pains and awaited hopes, containing a portrayal of the circumstances and crises through which the homeland was passing and of the problems the people suffered; and containing, beyond this, a portrayal of true patriotism and of clear national hopes.

In it there is sorrow; in it there is valor and self-sacrifice; and in it there is a bitterness that stirs the emotions of chivalry, of zeal, and of pride.

All this won for Verdi life and strength, and gave him the character of struggle in place of the sentimental character which music in Italy had borne; for he turned it from the melody of love and the refrain of the heart to the melody of liberty and the refrain of sovereignty and national dignity, until Verdi's music became the resounding anthem of patriotism, the sweet song of liberty, and the pure voice of national unity — so it paved the way for the blessed revolution, and the noble uprising sprang up in the spirit of the people.

Then the German Holden Trio presented a number of Verdi's magnificent operas — among them La Traviata, Rigoletto, Aida, and Nabucco — and souls were delighted and spirits enraptured.

The second festival was a festival of laughing, merry literature, which lightens the burdens of life; the speaker was Mr. Fouad al-Shayeb, Director-General of Propaganda and News in Syria. At the opening of his talk he dwelt on al-Jahiz's Book of Misers, which is considered the masterpiece of laughing literature in Arabic letters to this day. He mentioned men of letters from the West known for merry or satirical literature — such as Erasmus, Hugo, Twain, and Shaw — and then passed to the heart of his lecture, which he called "Pictures from the West," in which he recounted an American's impressions of life in England, taken from a recent American book.

• The Sukayna Forum issued invitations to hear the valuable talk given by Dr. Ibrahim al-Kilani, professor of Arabic literature at the Syrian University, on Sukayna daughter of al-Husayn, whose name the Forum bears in perpetuation of her memory and in acknowledgment of her service to literature and men of letters. In his talk the lecturer pictured the flood of luxury and ease that pervaded the age in which Sukayna lived — the Umayyad age — and then presented her private and public life in a style of brilliant colors and mellow cadences, in which Dr. Kilani stands alone among the Syrian moderns. He showed how Sukayna was a complete embodiment of the true revolution, in the full sense of the word, and how she was the true model of woman: in her beauty, which made her the resort of hearts and the delight of eyes; in her elegance and her innovations in that art, which made her the pioneer of her age in that field — especially in the dressing of hair, by which she became known and which became known by her in her day, so that people spoke of the "Sukayni coiffure," which captivated not the women only, but whose imitation passed over to the men as well; in the spirit of gaiety and playfulness that made her the sweet basil of souls and the delight of hearts, adorned by a nature deep-rooted in uprightness and an ancient attachment to honor; in her blazing intelligence and her polished literary taste, which made her an arbiter among the poets of her age and her house a place of pilgrimage for them; in her lavish generosity toward the poets and her tender care for those of them in straitened circumstances, until she became for them a Kaaba to which they turned from the far ends of the land. He pictured the poets' infatuation with her and their singing of her merits — especially Umar ibn Abi Rabi'a, whom Sukayna inspired to his most splendid love poems. But fortune is never complete for any man! For Sukayna was unhappy in her heart, unhappy in her married life — except with her husband Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr — for spiritual response and intellectual harmony were lacking between her and the husbands she married after the martyrdom of her first husband...