King Faisal Establishes a School in His Own Home

This is a delightful chapter from the book "The Beginning of the Road" by the lawyer Sabiha al-Shaykh Dawud — intimate memories of the birth and growth of the woman's renaissance in Iraq, set down faithfully by a graceful pen. The value of these memories is that they are true events, coupled with proofs and evidence, lived by the author herself as one of the pioneers who defied blind traditions and dared to hold the torch aloft before the ranks of their Iraqi sisters.

And in this chapter there is a gracious tribute to the builder of modern Iraq's glory, His late lamented Majesty King Faisal the First.

In 1924 King Faisal the First invited a delegation of members of the Women's Renaissance Club to meet him at his palace, in the presence of his consort Queen Huzaima. He spoke to them at length, setting forth how Islam had comprehended the condition of woman, acknowledged her rights, and laid down tolerant principles that guaranteed her social standing and respected her mental faculties and her human self. And he pointed to the interpretations and rulings that had been foisted in over long ages, depriving woman of the simplest rights and locking her behind a bolt of harsh judgments and false accusations.

He then passed swiftly to the good omens of the women's movement in Iraq and his delight in the Club's mission in the cultural and social fields, favoring it with no small share of his interest and encouragement; and he openly declared to them his resolve to present a house in which the Club's activity might settle, and from which would go forth his call for the existence of the new woman, equal to her national and social responsibilities.

Faisal, woman's champion

I have related this incident to say that, in its very simplicity, it holds features of that splendid picture which the modern history of Iraq has preserved of Faisal, king of the Shatt and the Two Rivers... and the desert plain — a picture that lifts the veil from a captivating side of the founder-King's life which, alas, the pens of writers have not yet entered upon, and which the works and books of the historians have not treated: Faisal's concern for woman, and for the movement that first showed its horn with the dawn of the new kingship and the edifice to come. It makes plain to the eye that the clash of politics, the gathering of efforts, and the mustering of forces for the battle out of which the light was to break in Iraq never for a moment turned the King's attention from that vast frozen energy, cowering behind veils and screens. Indeed, King Faisal himself declared, in a press interview he gave to Major Dudley Heathcote more than a quarter of a century ago: "The touchstone of woman's advancement is the home, and upbringing and education..."

"... And if I measure the progress of the Eastern woman against what I see around me of the march toward freeing ourselves upon lofty foundations, I may say that these principles will triumph and prevail in the future, and woman will then be an active and effective agent in the direction of affairs... And if we see our women surmounting the obstacles, sharing with man the struggle for the higher life and helping him toward progress, we must not be astonished; for life, especially in our time, calls for this cooperation, and demands of man and woman that they work side by side for all that makes for man's happiness and the good of society."

King Faisal was the first champion of the Iraqi woman's struggle, looking with a prophetic eye toward what might come of the release of that imprisoned energy, were it well directed, its way smoothed for its appearance, and its course turned in the right direction.

Nor was King Faisal one to be ignorant of the stubborn obstacle standing in the path of such attempts to raise woman up, free her mind, and take her by the hand; but neither did he leave despair any way into his soul, for he held that time and knowledge were warrant enough for the smoothing of difficulties.

And we do not overstep the truth when we say that King Faisal was ahead of his age in understanding the question of woman, and his successive stands reflected the most eloquent proof of the truth of his insight, his far-sightedness, and the soundness of his judgment.

Among what memory retains is that crisis which arose in 1923 because of what the late Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Naqib stirred up over my taking part in the literary Souk Okaz, and his condemnation of a young girl's taking part to play the role of al-Khansa. That opposition grew until the matter was raised to King Faisal, that he might speak the decisive word; and he declared himself in favor of my participation in the said Souk, in the manner I have related in an earlier chapter.

This decision, at which King Faisal arrived, carried a social meaning of great importance: it was, in sum, the first dawning of respect for the powers that the Iraqi woman represents. He championed her, and stood by her development with gentleness and forbearance, treating it with patience and wisdom, and tracing out its paths in safety and peace.

The first of the qualities of (Faisal), the champion of woman, that meets the eye is his pure instinct for encouraging learning, and for urging the Iraqi girl to drink deep from its springs — so much so that on one of his visits to the Central Girls' School he set aside (a fountain pen) for the pupil who excelled in Arabic calligraphy.

And on another occasion he announced his gift of a present to the girl who should win first place among her classmates! I recall that all these gifts fell to my lot. Indeed, among the marks of encouragement he continued to bestow — despite his absorption in the burdens laid upon him by the duties of kingship, the leadership of the renaissance, and the carrying of the mission — is an incident whose wonder does not fade, however long the time and however distant the era. When His Majesty learned that I had come first among the graduates of the Primary Women Teachers' Training College in 1928, he chose to set a fine example of his solicitude, his kindness, and his encouragement: he presented me with a diamond (brooch), invited my mother to an audience to congratulate her on the results I had obtained, and begged her to allow me to travel to the United States to complete my studies.

Nor did the King confine his concern to the care of woman's education, the multiplying of schools, and the achieving of aims and goals. The King kept the strengthening of woman's culture before his eyes: despite his absorption in the problems of the people and the cares of the state, he followed the activity of the few schools, inquired into all that surrounded them, and spent his effort in encouraging them. And he made a habit of paying short visits, at varying intervals, in which he took care to encourage these institutions and push them along the courses of success and progress.

Add to this the solicitude he showed toward the infant women's renaissance by lulling the revolt of the strait-laced and the wrath of the reactionaries, to whom he would listen in his palace with forbearance and patience, doing his utmost to turn aside their anger by guidance and kindliness, so as to win their help and support.

And the spurring of spirits toward culture — but he also took an interest in the athletic movement, the first attempt of its kind — so far as I know — witnessed by the girls' schools in this country, in the early days of national rule.

His Majesty placed at the head of his projects the principle that the perfect mind dwells in the sound body. And this is perhaps the first time the veil has been lifted from his consent to the forming of a sports team headed by his daughter, which no small number of Iraqi girls joined; they would hold matches in the palace gardens, at which he himself showed every kind of encouragement for their success.

The King's popular and democratic spirit overflowed into the shaping and crystallizing of women's education. He set the best of examples by agreeing to the opening of a school to teach nursing to his daughters and to other Iraqi girls of that day.

And it comes to my mind that he entrusted the late Mrs. Amat Said with the teaching of his daughters, who were thus in the front rank of those who profited from the opportunities for education that King Faisal opened through his concern for spreading culture among women's circles.

Classes to teach the girls of the royal family

The rest of the members of the royal Hashemite family kept pace with (King Faisal) in his zeal for woman's education: his brother, the late King Ali ibn al-Husayn, opened a class for his daughters like the special class opened in King Faisal's palace. And the late Queen Aliya was in the front rank of the pupils who came forward to learn and to study, with true zeal and desire.

Two princesses with the people

Among the shining facts to which I think it worth pointing in the telling of these memories is that the Princesses Badia and the late Jalila, daughters of the late King Ali, studied at the Central Girls' School, attending regularly like the other pupils, and shedding over the atmosphere of study that pure spirit on whose horizon glow the majesty of kingship and the beauty of devotion to learning and of hearkening to the light of reason.

Add to this his stand in encouraging the entry of girl students into the higher institutes, as happened when the first girl student entered the Medical College.

In short... King Faisal was the first to trace the lines of the women's renaissance we witness today throughout the length and breadth of the country — in the form of schools, or scholarly missions abroad, or associations, or in the form of elements that meet upon the field of work with that steady success which has proved the truth of the King's intuition and the reach of his conclusions. And the women's renaissance in this country will remain indebted for its very existence to his efforts, for ever and ever.

In supporting woman, King Faisal was aware, in his conscience and his humanity, of rights that distant time had buried alive; and he worked to loosen their bonds and to supply them with the means of life and of light.

King Faisal defined his view, saying: "The backwardness which the Eastern woman suffered in the past is what robbed her of her character and made her forget her personality. If we go back to history, we find that man's selfishness and woman's ignorance are what dragged the two of them down into this decline. I do not wish to compare the Eastern woman's past with her present, nor to pass judgment on her future, for that hangs upon the new development that embraces the whole world, from which I hope she will win the amplest good and the greatest happiness.

"And there is an important question with which those who call for the emancipation of woman concern themselves, and which they name her 'economic advancement': namely, making her able to do for herself, for her sex, and for her country whatever she can do. This question, in my view, is the most important thing to strive for and to turn minds toward; for mere propaganda for woman's freedom, and her imitation of the Western woman, does not achieve the goal sought from the woman's renaissance. And I believe that all this my country has studied, and given the greatest care...

"Yes... woman today is like a youth newly come out into the world after spending long years in prison, or within the walls of schools and their closed classrooms: she may go to extremes in her opinions and her actions, as such a youth goes to extremes, and she may be struck with wandering and vanity, as he is; but before long her affairs will come right, she will recover her senses, and she will become a useful member — nay, an important member — of social life, indispensable to every society that seeks happiness and progress..."