Dunya Marwa and her child "Zahir"

Dunya Marwa and her child "Zahir"

During the past month Lebanon was visited by our old friend and colleague Mrs. Dunya Marwa, wife of Dr. Salah al-Din al-Munajjid, director of the Institute of Manuscripts of the Arab League in Cairo...

Whenever I think of "Dunya" I remember the Arabic proverb that says: "Do not wish your friend happiness, or you will lose him." And indeed, from the day of Dunya's marriage and her making Egypt her home, we lost her, and we lost her rounds in the field of journalism and her accustomed activity... As though no one before her had ever married and borne children! For after she was blessed with her firstborn, "Zahir" — God keep him — she withdrew entirely from public life and gave herself over to the care of this little one, who is no doubt sweet... and I affirm it without having seen him!...

In a telephone call that connected me with Dunya shortly before her

departure from Beirut for Cairo, I caught from her tone that she is writing memoirs "To Zahir," and I expect these effusions to have their share of charm — a gift Dunya will present to us from the Nile Valley, after this long silence!

The Woman's Voice awaits the memoirs, O "Umm Zahir" — so will you not hurry and send them, along with a picture of the precious boy?!

Some of the members of the Arab Writers' Conference at Bloudan

ferences woman was represented in every delegation — and this is a beautiful sign that caught my eye. The conferees reached important resolutions, but the test lies in the governments' carrying out of these resolutions in a way that raises the standing of literature and of writers in the Arab countries.

Mrs. al-Said added, qualifying: "It is true that the discussions at times took a violent turn, but the intense enthusiasm was for arriving at opinions and results of real value."

And Dr. Zahia Kaddoura, of Lebanon's delegation, added her praise of the pure Arab spirit that

Mrs. Amina al-Said, of Egypt's delegation to the Arab Writers' Conference held in Damascus from September 20 to 27 last, spoke of some of the good signs at the conference, saying that for the first time in the history of Arab con-

prevailed at the conference, and of the exceeding care the Syrians took for the conference's success.

It is worth mentioning that the Arab women representatives to the Arab Writers' Conference, which comprised seventy persons, were:

From Egypt — Amina al-Said