Mary Ajami

Mary Ajami ( / ; 1888 – 25 December 1965) was a Syrian poet and pioneering feminist writer in Arabic, who launched the first women's periodical in West Asia, titled ''Al-'Arus'' ().

Biography

Ajami was born to a large Greek Orthodox family originally from Hama and was raised in Bab Tuma, Damascus. Her father, Abdallah al-Ajami, was a prominent Damascene landowner, businessman and influential figure of the church. Her grandfather Yousef traded in jewelry and ornaments from Damascus to Persia, hence the surname Ajami.

Ajami spent her formative years in Damascus, where she received an education from Irish and Russian missionary schools, before studying nursing and graduating from the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut in 1906. Even while she was a student at the Syrian Protestant College, she began teaching as a visiting teacher in Zahlé, Lebanon.

After graduation, she began teaching in Port Said, Egypt. The following year she moved to a school in Alexandria, Egypt before returning to her native Damascus to teach English to students attending the Russian military school there.

Journalism

Ajami was a writer, frequently publishing her work under the pseudonym of ''Layla'' (her mother's name) for fear of reprisals.

Ajami began freelance writing about social and political topics for Muhammad Kurd Ali's weekly newspaper ''Al-Muqtabas'' and in 1910 began her own periodical ''Al-'Arus'' (The Bride), which was the first Syrian publication to defend women's rights, and ran for 11 years. As the editor-in-chief, she was able to employ a few educated girls to serve on its editorial board, although she had the young women sign their journalist contributions under an assumed name for their protection from harassment in Syria's male-dominated society. Ajami's first editorial in the new periodical was a manifesto for Syria's emerging feminist movement, dedicating her work

To those who believe that in the spirit of women in the strength to kill the germs of corruption, and that in her hand is the weapon to rend the gloom of opposition, and in her mouth the solace to lighten human misery.

She personally raised the necessary funds to support the journal, which soon became recognized as "one of the highest quality periodicals in the Arab world." While the journal was a rousing success among the country's female educated elite, it was scorned by conservative Muslim readers who condemned its messages and sought to abolish it.

During World War I, the journal suspended publication and Ajami wrote editorials for the Egyptian newspaper ''Al-Ahrar'' (Free Patriots), and for ''Al-Islah'' (Reform), an Arabic newspaper based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In 1919, she officially restarted publication of ''Al-'Arus'', but not without controversy. In 1920, religious leaders demanded that Ajami be brought to trial for promoting heresy by publishing a story supporting civil marriage.

Syrian nationalism

She was fiercely opposed to the Ottoman Empire, especially after 1915, when authorities in Beirut executed her fiancé, Petro Pauli, for criticizing the occupying military regime of Sultan Mohammed Rashad V.

From 1918 to 1920 she headed the Christian Women's Club, an organization aimed at promoting Arabism amongst the Christians of Damascus and Beirut.

After the French occupation in Syria in 1920, Ajami continued resisting against the colonial renchmandate just as she resisted against the Ottomans. She faced attacks by the French colonial Government in Damascus and Beirut who had full control over the media in Syria and Lebanon until 1952.

Suffrage campaigner

In 1920, after the Ottoman Empire collapsed, Ajami founded the Damascus Women's Literary Club and spearheaded the movement to give women the right to vote, going directly to King Faysal I, the first post-Ottoman Syrian ruler. In that same year, she established a weekly salon in her home that was well attended by both men and women, who took that opportunity to discuss politics, philosophy and religious affairs. Her salon was groundbreaking at the time, because allowing men and women to engage in discussions together was unheard of in Syria. She described the salon's aim as "reviving female intelligentsia."

Later years

In 1947, her poem "The Peasant’s Hope" won first prize on BBC radio in London.

Ajami's successful career was tempered by elements of tragedy in her personal life. For many years, she longed to continue her studies abroad, but her father's death and the outbreak of war prevented her from doing so.

Ajami was somewhat of an anomaly for her time, and, like her peer May Ziadeh, Ajami never married. She died on December 25, 1965, and was buried in the St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus’ Bab Sharqi neighborhood.

Tributes

Fares al-Khoury, the two-time prime minister of Syria, was a frequent visitor to Ajami's literary salon, and compared her to Ziadeh when he said in verse form, Joseph T. Zeidan reminds us that her achievements "must be assessed in the light of formidable obstacles she encountered while struggling to keep her journal alive, not least of which were her father's attempts to persuade her to quit.",pp.46-49

Selected publications

*''Al-Majdaliyya al-Hasna (the Beautiful Magdelene) (1913)
*''Mukhtarat min al-Sh'r'' (Selected Poems) (1944)

See also

* Women's literary salons and societies in the Arab world

The Arab Human Development Report: Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ajami, Mary
Members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch
Syrian Christians
1888 births
1965 deaths
Syrian salon-holders
Syrian women poets
Syrian nationalists
American University of Beirut alumni
Writers from Damascus
Syrian suffragists
Syrian women journalists
20th-century Syrian women writers
20th-century Syrian poets
Syrian magazine founders
Arab Christians
Arab feminists
Syrian feminists