Ulfat al-Idilbi (1912-2007)

Ulfat al-Idilbi was born in Damascus in November 1912. She got married young, at the age of 17, to Dr Hamdi al-Idilbi in 1929 and began writing stories while in her teens, publishing her first masterpiece “Al-Qarar al-Akheer” (The Final Decision) in 1946. Her husband, a German-educated doctor, fostered her talent and encouraged her to develop it. During World War II, she joined the al-Zahra Literary Saloon in Damascus and founded a literary magazine that never saw the light, because French authorities refused to give her a license. In 1945, she became a member of the Women’s Literary Club in Syria. In 1947, the BBC Arabic broadcast station chose her first novel as the best Arabic storybook of the year. In the early 1950s, she contributed regularly to the Egyptian magazine “al-Risala.” In 1954, Idilbi published a collection of short stories on the lifestyle of Damascenes entitled, “Qisas Shamiyya” (Damascene Stories). She wrote about the various methods of life, dialect, work, and social customs in Damascus. Her uncle, the writer Kazem al-Daghastani brought her under his patronage and introduced her to prominent literary figures in Syria and Lebanon. She began to attend literary forums in Damascus and was a com-mon speaker at the women’s right forum of Thuraya al-Hafez, which was popular in the years 1953-1963. Idilbi also wrote articles in daily newspapers, and appeared at literary salons in Beirut to market her books. In 1963, making use of her first success, Ulfat al-Idilbi published her second book “Wada’an Ya Dimashq” (Farewell Damascus), which was a bestseller in Syria and Lebanon as well. It was the story of how much Damascus had changed since the 1920s, with the influx of foreigners, and the rapid development and modernization. In 1980, she wrote her bestseller “Dimashq Ya Basmat al-Hozn” (Damascus the Smile of Sadness). It was a huge success and was translated into English under the title Sabriya: Damascus Bitter Sweet in 1996. It was adopted into screen by Syrian Television, and the 15-episode series made Ulfat al-Idilbi a household name in Syria. The book tells the story of Sabriya, a young girl growing up in Damascus in the 1920s. She is tormented by her conservative surrounding that treats her as subordinate because of her gender. She is passionately committed to the nationalist cause, especially when a military uprising breaks out in Syria against the French in 1925, but is unable to take part in nationalist activity, again, because she is a woman. She seeks political freedom, and rebellion against the French, but that too is off-limits to her in Damascus, because she is a woman. Sabriya says, “My country-men demand freedom, but cannot even give it to one another. Half of the nation remains bound by chains imposed by you men!” Sabriya’s life is filled with hardship and humiliation, imposed on her because she lives in a patriarchal, gender-segregated, and male dominated society. She had been forced to abandon her dreams—and romances—to live the life of an ordinary woman in Damascus. Love is prohibited for Sabriya. She has two brothers, one who feels compassionate, while the other treats her badly. After her father dies, Sabriya sells an antique carpet from her family mansion in the Old City, and uses the money to pay for his extravagant funeral. She hires poets, dervish dances, lute, and fine catering, along with the best of Oriental sweets. At first glance, the homage seems to be for her dead father. The next morning, however, she is found hanging from a lemon tree, amid roses and jasmine, in the courtyard of her family’s Damascus mansion. Sabriya apparently had held the exquisite funeral for herself—rather than her father—to celebrate the end of her life. Her life leads her into despair, and she takes pleasure only by ending it at will. Idilbi created a complex character in Sabriya, who struggles in life, despite monumental difficulties, then retreats to suicide in defeat. The Financial Times reviewed the novel saying: “Sabriya is a haunting, accomplished novel about the lives of women in 1920’s Syria. Idilbi’s stately prose is relentless in its exposure of Sabriya’s despair... [This novel] reveals Ulfat Idilbi as the possessor of a singular, passionate voice which is all her own.”