Never has the Lebanese woman united and agreed upon one thing as she has united in grief and sorrow over Salwa Mahmasani Moumina. Like a knife her death cut into every heart; like a blazing ember it seared eyes and souls.
Our weeping for Salwa is an intimate weeping, for to everyone she was the affectionate friend, her tongue kept clean of all harm, her heart pure of everything but kindness and purity.
The Lebanese family has lost in her a model wife and a lady of complete womanliness, great of soul, of refined breeding.
And society has lost in her a candle that burned itself to give light to others: a zealous reformer whose habit was service and the giving of self in absolute love and self-denial.
And the women's associations have lost in her one equal to the gravest responsibilities, the best of those who represented them and spoke with their tongue.
And Arabic letters have lost in her a writer of delicate feeling and deep thought, who felt the problems of her homeland and her society and lived the experience of creation in humane, instructive stories.
And "The Woman's Voice" has lost in her a loving friend who nourished the magazine with her balanced, sober pen; never once did she fail to answer a call or to clarify a problem, in a spirit than which none was kinder or more generous! And perhaps from just there came her message to society and to the daughters of her sex.
In acknowledgment of this shining truth, we devote part of this issue to our departed Salwa, in loyalty to her precious memory and in partial payment of her claim upon us.
And as we offer to her noble husband and to all her family the duty of condolence, we ask God to enfold the beloved departed in the abundance of His mercy.
• She was born in Beirut in 1908 into a noble family distinguished by learning and refinement.
• She received her education at the Islamic Maqasid College for Girls and the French Saint Joseph College for Girls, and studied Arabic under the learned Sheikh Mustafa al-Ghalayini.
• She taught Arabic at the Islamic Maqasid College for Girls for thirteen years.
• She married Mr. Muhammad Aziz Moumina, proprietor of the Aziziyya School; they were granted no children.
• She began writing early, in "al-Mara al-Jadida," then in "The Woman's Voice" and elsewhere.
• She was among the most prominent of those who lectured and wrote on the rights of woman and the happiness of the family.
• She is the author of "With Life" — a collection of social and humane stories — and of "Along the Paths," a second, unfinished collection of stories.
• She enlisted herself loyally in women's activity in its various fields and represented women at a number of congresses.
• Lebanon lost her on Sunday morning, December 22, 1957, after a grave illness that defeated medicine; she was borne to her last resting place with tears and sighs.