My dear reader:
Here is a new corner at your service, which we resume publishing today in the pages of this magazine, in deference to the wish of a group of our readers, and in the hope that it will proceed on its steady, regular course, so that we are not obliged to withdraw it a second time.
The immediate reason for our return to conducting the corner "If You Ask Me, I'll Answer You" is that we have found the womanly element fit to conduct it, in the person of Mrs. Almas Salman al-Duwayk, whom we introduced to our readers in the last issue.
In this corner "The Woman's Voice" welcomes every question that reaches it — whether on health, on matters of the mind, on society, on politics, etc... — and it assures its readers that Mrs. Duwayk, to whom the supervision of this corner has been entrusted, is fully competent to bear the responsibility of the experienced mother, and that in whatever is closed to her, and whatever lies outside her field, she will turn to the people of specialty and learning.
So, my dear reader, disclose to us the thorny problems that sway in the folds of your soul and have worn you out for a solution — for burying them in the depths and bearing them in patience avail nothing... Does your head ring with matters of the mind or of society before which you have stood helpless and in the utmost perplexity?
Is there some counsel or wise guidance we can offer you with love and sincerity?
Write to us at once, at the magazine's address, and you shall see what care we will take!
— The Editors —
Q — Yesterday there was a violent quarrel between me and my wife, and it was not the first of its kind. She stands against me in every matter; she meets my every remark with a storm and no word of apology, and with generous scolding, until my anger boils; and I have come to hate entering the house where no request of mine is granted, until it has become a hell in my eyes.
After yesterday's incident I came home to learn that my daughter, who is seventeen years of age, had left the house after slipping a note into the drawer, saying:
Do not weary yourselves searching for me; I am in a safe place, working.
Tell me, for God's sake — is this not the result of her bad upbringing?! And is not the mother responsible for her daughter's conduct, which allows her to run away from home? My
mind is lost among my domestic troubles — come to my rescue.
(Perplexed)
A — I read your letter several times, and it has become a certainty with me that your daughter's departure from the house that has become, as you say, a hell in your eyes, is the result of the quarreling whose painful scenes she witnessed more than once. She has thereby taught you and your wife a profound lesson. If you both looked closely into it, each of you would accept the other's point of view with an open heart, without quarrels and without commanding or forbidding.
As for your daughter — since she included words of reassurance in her note, this is a good sign that should set your minds at rest rather than distress them; in it there is a lesson for you both, and no reflection at all on her upbringing.
So return to yourselves in sincerity, and feel your way through this situation with a living conscience: you will have performed a sacred duty, and you and your