The Syrian Arab Women's Union Reception in Damascus

On the eighth of this past January the Syrian Arab Women's Union gave a grand reception at the Orient Club in honor of the delegations to the Asian-African Solidarity Conference held in Cairo, in whose work the Syrian Arab Women's Union took part, represented in the person of Miss Amal al-Jazairi. The delegations reached Damascus at noon that day, on a visit of several days at the official invitation of the Syrian government.

The gathering included the ministers, the high official personalities, the Arab and foreign diplomatic corps, a large number of deputies and men of thought, letters, and the press, and a company of the gracious ladies and young ladies of Damascus.

When the guests were all assembled, Mrs. Rima Kurd Ali al-Azmeh rose and delivered the address of the Women's Union. She welcomed the members of the Asian and African delegations, foremost among them Mrs. Rameshwari Nehru, leader of the women's movement in India, and spoke of the brilliant results achieved by the Conference of the Solidarity of the Asian and African Peoples, which drew its inspiration from the resolutions of the Bandung Conference; and she linked it with the General Arab Women's Union Congress held in September 1957 in Damascus, showing that its recommendations too were drawn from the spirit of the immortal Bandung Conference.

Mrs. Azmeh pointed to the role of the leading women of the women's movement in the greater Arab world, and to their blessed struggle to raise the level of Arab society and to strengthen cooperation and brotherhood among the sister Arab peoples.

Then Mrs. Rameshwari Nehru, head of the delegation of India, rose and thanked the Syrian Women's Union for its invitation, saying it was a gracious gesture that the Syrian woman should be the first to welcome the delegations in Damascus. She then spoke of the Solidarity Conference and the services it rendered to the causes of the Asian and African peoples, and pointed to the valuable contribution the Arab woman makes in defending the rights of other peoples, and to her continuous struggle to make firm the foundations of peace in the world.

And to the strains of sweet music the guests gathered round the tables, laden with dishes of sweets and baskets of fruit, making acquaintance and conversing.