Women

A young woman from Wales, a princess in Damascus, crowned the heart of the now well-known musicians in Syria. She started with them in their first concerts at Abou Khalil Alkabani’s theater in Damascus back in 1962, and in that marvelous Arabic house in Halbouni, the first location of the Arab institute of Music, along with her husband Sulhi Al-Wadi. Sulhi, with whom her journey started 54 years ago in London, and ended in Damascus.

Sami Arnaaout

Unlike many intellectuals, who went to Damascus, Paris, or London to develop their careers, Haifa Bitar stayed in Latakia, next to her church, to struggle with the pen for women emancipation in Syria.

Like other writers and artists I met in Syria, Latakia-based Haifa Bitar had opinions about the September 11th at-tacks and the subsequent US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Women and men are usually depicted as having extremely different roles in society, evident in the way both literature and the media portray them. Before elaborating some gender roles that confine both sexes to traditional duties and responsibilities, it is important to reveal the difference between one’s sex and one’s gender. <Sex’ is used to refer to the bio-logical, anatomical differences between males and females, whilst <gender’ is used to refer to the social and cultural differences between them. Hence, sex is a biological construct whereas gender is a social construct. A person’s sex is a biological quality, but a person acquires his/her gender through a process called gender socialization. The development of gender roles often begins as early as childhood. Children learn from their parents, society, and school the conception of «feminine» and «masculine.»

 

Despite the fact that Syrian women writers are deeply rooted in the social and political concerns of Arab society in general and the Syrian one in particular, their literary achievements have largely been ignored. Their creativity did not receive enough local acclaim. Although there are many renowned Syrian women writers, most critics in the Arab world dissociated themselves from women’s writings, and concentrated on the dominant works of men. There are several books that are writ-ten on the status of the novel in Syria, without a single woman writer being mentioned. In other words, female creativity is deeply belittled in the dominant literary criticism, which did not celebrate what Syrian women had achieved during the twentieth century. As for the global literary scene, Syrian women writers have not been widely analyzed, except for those who lived abroad, or those who managed to pave their way into public politics. Hence, there is a dire need to revive the buried history of women and to celebrate the achievements of Syrian women writers who have long been kept in the shadow, and whose works are sometimes unknown even to Syrian readers.

 

Women in Syria are elected to office. They vote, run businesses, and families.
They act, sing, paint, and much more.

When I tell Americans about Syria, the land, the monuments, the people—and the incredibly warm and resilient families, they are surprised and pleased. The greatest source of interest is in Syrian women, who definitely break the stereotype. Syrian women are not submissive creatures who live in the shadow of their men. It’s true that some are especially religious, but they make their own choices. The women I have met in Syria are proud, independent, well educated, and resourceful. They decide to cover, or not; where to study; where to work; and whom to marry. Some of the women I have met work in government, others run their own businesses or have taken over the family business. Still others have served as elected officials. And my interest in art and writing has introduced me to a number of Syrian women who excel in these fields.

“When you think of Syrian women, what’s the first image that comes to your mind?” I asked a friend in Washington DC over lunch. “Well, I imagine they’re like other women in the Middle East,” he stammered. “Some probably wear the hijab, but I don’t know.” He isn’t the only American that doesn’t know.

Islam has evolved over the course of historic and cultural events spanning more than a millennia. It has proven to be a dynamic and progressive faith capable of adapting without conflicting with modernity. The concept of ‘Ijtihad,’ or reinterpretation, is central to this flexibility in Islam. It allows for the redefinition of religious laws and practices in contemporary terms. Now more than ever, the Muslim world needs a modern Islamic reinterpretation of women’s rights that is responsive to their contemporary challenges and aspirations.

 

On one cold morning in January 1948, a young officer named Adib al-Shishakli came to his wife saying that he was leaving home for a one-week military mission. He took some heavy clothing, bid her farewell, and left.

 

The next day, she read in the papers that he had volunteered to fight in the Arab Liberation Army in Palestine, four months before the Arab states declared war on the newly created State of Israel. He left the family with no bread-provider, no money, or justification for his departure.

It was raining in Damascus when the 15-year-old girl ran away from school to go to the cinema with her friends. She was carrying a notebook of important notes for her upcoming exams. The notebook slipped out of her hand, was muddied and damaged beyond repair. Looking back 59 years later, she chuckled, “It was bad luck at the time—or perhaps, it was good luck in the long run!”

The young girl returned home in tears. Her brother told her not to worry, saying that he had a friend who was a good typist, and would re-type the lost notes. That friend asked to meet the little girl, to find out exactly what she wanted to write. She agreed to see him, and this was how a long-lasting love story began. They were engaged for four years and were eventually married in 1949. Her name was Nabiha Mohammad, a member of a Turkish family living in Syria, who became a schoolteacher in the Souq Saruja district of Old Damascus. His name was Nihad Quali, and was destined to become one of the legends of Syrian television, theatre, and cinema.