What the Press Said

We record below excerpts from what the press said of our late lamented Mrs. Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah:

The newspaper Beirut said:

Mrs. Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah has died—the good teacher, the rebel woman of letters, the faithful wife, the tender mother, the exemplary citizen who reared generations, whose words had the effect of magic; who was the best of companions to a distinguished citizen and gave the homeland noble children and useful citizens; who served this country with her pen and her heart, so that her home was a salon of men of letters, who gathered around her to listen to her delightful talk and her sound ideas, and to deliberate with her the foundations of a renaissance that would carry this country toward the light.

Mrs. Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah will remain alive through her literary works, through the magazine al-Mar'a al-Jadida (The New Woman), through her patriotic works in teaching, refinement, and cultivation, and through the students who drank deep of knowledge at her hands and received from her the banner of the women's renaissance, to raise it aloft with their strong arms, their balanced minds, and their lofty souls.

The newspaper al-Nahar said:

Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah united the greatness of the mother and her duty, the free flight of the woman of letters and her revolt, and the work of the teacher and her guidance. She was a mother to generations of Lebanese, the parent of a family of the finest sons, and the centerpiece of the necklace of the pioneers of our social, literary, and political renaissance.

Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah remains a model for our rising generations and a beacon for her companions and her pupils among the pioneers of the women's renaissance. It is she who gave the proof of woman's success in the social field, alongside her companionship to a good citizen and her raising of a good family.

And the newspaper Sada Lubnan said:

Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah has closed her eyelids forever, and the country has lost a pillar of the women's renaissance and one of the noblest faces of goodness, cheer, and intelligence the country has known in the last half century. God took her to Himself after a grievous illness that confined her to bed for long years without extinguishing the burning ember of her soul or her bright, luminous mind. Every day she conquered death anew, by the triumph of her spirit over death and by the spirit of liberation, love, and renewal which she instilled, with all gentleness, into the souls of the many—women and men—who never ceased to come to her refined and sweet springs of thought.

The name of Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah is the heading of a great chapter among the chapters of the social renaissance in our country. In the days when woman trudged in the fetters of ignorance and bondage, when worn-out traditions were tearing people into factions and sects, Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah—the teacher, the writer, and the journalist—was a guiding firebrand, not for the daughters of her sex alone but for all people, and a light among the lights of love and harmony, shining forth in generous giving amid the pitch-black glooms.

And the life of Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah was itself a true expression of what she believed in and called for. In every gathering she was the resounding voice calling to liberation, the insistent summons to knowledge and cultivation. Sectarianism never once came between her and her open-hearted humanity, adorned with the sweetest of qualities and the fairest of traits; so that she and her husband, the late lamented great Badr Dimashqiyah, gave the good example in that of which our society still stands in need even now.

And if woman has had, in the lives of great men, that influence to which the biographies of the great in every age bear witness, then the wife of the late Badr Dimashqiyah had, in every field of his striving, his activity, and his excellence, an influence that cannot be denied. They were, God rest them both, one heart, one mind, and one hand; and they were able to make of their lives a broad life, filled to the full with noble work.

God granted our great departed such graciousness of company and of conversation, such breadth of mind, greatness of character, and largeness of heart, as made her, in youth and in old age, the axis of a great activity and an abundant spring—among the most generous springs of guidance, of cultivation, and of the gathering of people together in a spirit of devotion to truth and of love of nation and homeland. No wonder, then, if the calamity of her loss today is the calamity of the whole country; and no wonder that as soon as the news spread, people made their way to the house of the departed Badr Dimashqiyah to exchange the warmest condolences.

And the newspaper al-Zawabi' said:

Seldom does the history of woman in the world carry a name like the name of Julia Tu'mah—the woman on whose neck death closed its grip after a quarter of a century spent in her bed in a wrestling

with death; she is the first woman of our nation to give the modern world the decisive proof that woman in Syria is still a member of society enjoying her full rights.

A quarter century of pain Julia Tu'mah passed in her bed, between pen and book.

A quarter century of the agonies of a grievous illness Julia Tu'mah spent in her bed—guiding a society, building up a home, and watching over the raising of a family.

And so, just as she lived in silence, Julia Tu'mah died, yesterday, in silence...

And the soil of the homeland, yesterday, silently folded away one of the great women of our nation.

And the newspaper al-Misri said:

When the voice of Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah was raised for the first time, calling for the necessity of woman's descent into the arena of work for the sake of her homeland and her people, and setting forth what rights are hers and what duties are upon her, the Arab woman—neither in Lebanon, Julia's homeland, nor in the other lands—had not yet convinced man that his life's companion exists not merely for bearing children and preparing food.

The works of this noble departed in the field of learning, letters, writing, and thought will go on proclaiming her merit... Her name will be inscribed in the register of Lebanese and Arab history beside those working women of the Arabs who preceded her to the world of immortality... And may those she has left behind her—her pupils and her wards in Lebanon—weave upon her pattern... For fate is sparing with women of genius, and Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah was one of them!!

And the newspaper al-Hayat said:

Julia pursued her mission after her marriage to the late Badr Dimashqiyah, gathering around her a select company of the ladies of Lebanon in "the Women's League," whose members used to meet at her house monthly and carry out charitable social works. But the Turks accused the association of political activity and shut it down.

And despite the responsibilities of motherhood, Julia continued her activity, founding in 1921 the magazine al-Mar'a al-Jadida, which was the first Arabic women's magazine of a scholarly standard rivaling the magazines of the West in that day.

Julia's journalistic gift shone forth, and her magazine gained wide circulation in the Arab countries. Its leading article, published under the heading "To the Daughter of My Country," was among the strongest sections of the magazine; in it she treated, with boldness and ability, the problems of woman among us.

Al-Mar'a al-Jadida lived only six years, for illness made Julia unable to continue her journalistic mission. Yet she never wearied of her social responsibilities: she was the best of mothers and housewives, and from time to time she favored the papers with enlightening articles and letters.