Thuraya Al-Hafez
Thuraya al-Hafez (1911-2000), (Arabic ثريا الحافظ) was a Syrian politician who campaigned against the niqab and fought for women's rights.
In 1928, after completing her schooling in Damascus, al-Hafez became one of Syria's first female primary school teachers. The previous year, she founded the Damascene Women's Awakening Society. In the 1930s, she became a prominent women's rights activist, establishing the Women's School Alumnae Association for educated women. In May 1942, she led a protest march by one hundred women to the government headquarters in Damascus, where they all lifted their veils. She gave a speech arguing that 'the veil we wore was never mentioned in God's Holy Book or by Muhammad'.[1] In 1947, she became an instructor in Arabic literature at Damascus's prestigious Tajheez School.
In 1953, al-Hafez became the first woman to run for a seat in the Syrian parliament.[2] Although she was subsequently defeated, her endeavours were significant steps toward achieving their goal of elevating the status of the women in the Arab world. She claimed that the vote itself was tampered with and that she had in fact secured 75% of the vote.
Thuraya's husband, Munir al-Rayyes, owned the Damascus daily paper Barada, for which Thuraya began writing in 1953. In the same year, she 'launched her own literary and political salon in Damascus, which was open to both genders. The salon was convened in her own house and was named after Sukayna bint al-Hussein, the great-granddaughter of Muhammad, who presided over the first literary salon in Muslim history'.[3]
Like her husband, Thuraya supported Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt both during and after the United Arab Republic.[4]
Further reading
[edit]Sami M. Moubayed, Steel and Silk: Men and Women who Shaped Syria 1900-2000 (Seattle: Cune Press, 2006), p. 435.
References
[edit]- ^ Sami M. Moubayed, Steel and Silk: Men and Women who Shaped Syria 1900-2000 (Seattle: Cune Press, 2006), p. 435.
- ^ Moubayad, Sami (July 30, 2010). "Niqab Ban Unveils Syria's Secular Past". Asia Times Online. Archived from the original on October 5, 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Ghada Talhami, Historical Dictionary of Women in the Middle East and North Africa (Plymouth: Scarecrow, 2013).
- ^ Sami M. Moubayed, Steel and Silk: Men and Women who Shaped Syria 1900-2000 (Seattle: Cune Press, 2006), p. 498.