The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 28, 1924, Page 12

The Women’s Movement in the Near East (Continued from page 4) in the factories of Syria. In 1914 out of 14,000 workers in the silk spinning and weaving mills of Libanon, 12,000 were women. The gradual impoverish- ment of the present silkwor breed- ers of Syria is the cause of the dis- integration of handicraft industry and of the establishment of big factories. Women’s labor is greatly exploited in Syria, and the Syrian working women are working under conditions similar to those of the working women in France in the last century. Their earnings are ridiculously small, and the working day extremely long. But Syria, while being a center of capital- ist industrial development, is also the country of the most ancient trade capitalism. Women’s growing partici- pation in production has made Syria the heart of the Arabian women’s movement. Already the 19th century saw in Syria the advent of Arabian women writers, for instance: The Ara- bian poetess Varda-al-Yazyjy. Since 1892 women’s journals in the Arabian language began to (make their afpear- ance “Ali-Fatat,” “Alis-Alojali,” and “Fata-Alishark” (The Eastern Girl) published by the women. writers Khind-Nadhal, Alex-Avenino and others. Since 1908 a woman’s journal “Alzasna” has been published in Bei-|2 rut by Zhirzh Nikyliabaz. ‘The Women’s Movement in Syria coincides with the revival of the Arabian Na- tionalist movement (supported by 3reat Britain in opposition to the Pan-Turkoman movement) and is more in the nature of an educational movement. Cairo has been for some time the center of this movement, and has thes a great influence on the Women’s Movement in Egypt. The proletarian Women’s Movement in Syria, has not yet taken a definite form. tained there has been a be- of factory work, as the Jatter does not exist. Prostitution is flouris in Persia especially in Teheran. However, since the Russian revolu- tion, an awakening has been percepti- ble even among the backward female population_of Persia. Persia too is going tiru a_ period. of economic changes, the cost of living is rising, the peasantry is becoming. more and more proletarianized, while the moral and ideological influence of the neigh- boring Soviet Republics is beginning to permeate the women masses of Persia. Up to the present the organ- ized women’s moverient has a pure- ly educational character and embrac- es only a small section of the native women intellectuals. Beginning in 1921, a women’s journal “Women’s World” was published in Teheran, but was subsequently closed down. In 1921, a woman’s journal, “Women’s (“Woman’s Voice’) made its appear- ance. The Communist movement in Iran, which two years ago resolved itself into the “Adaliat” Party, is too weak to attract large numbers of women, but nevertheless there are a few wo- men communists in Persia. Egypt. nates 1919, there has been a pro- need Women’s Movement in Egypt which took the form of active parti- cipation in the national-revolutionary struggle of the Egyptian people di- rected against British Imperialism. Towards the end of the XIX and in the beginning of the XX _ century, much attention was paid in Arabian publications to the position of “Egyp- tian women. The most prominent the- orist of the emancipation of Egyptian women was the Arabian writer Kas- sim Emin. His chief works “Takjair- al Mara” (Women’s Emancipation) and the “New Woman” had a very Young Pioneers in Russia taking the oath of Communism ginning of the communist movement which is hitherto confined to the Uni- versity students of Beirut. Persia. In spite of the recent attempts at a revolutionary movement, Persia is still more feudal than capitalist and is as dependent on western capital as a colony. The population of Persia consists of 70 per cent_of impover- ished peasants, crushed by taxes and oppressed by usurers, big landowners, and government officials. Ten per cent of the population are nomadic and twenty per cent town dwellers, in- cluding artisans and people engaged in handierafts. Owing to the feudal- patriarchal customs and the strict ap- plication of Shariat laws, the Persian women are hitherto among the most oppressed and backward sections of the female population of the East. As in Afghanistan, the women of the. nomadic tribes in Persia are the freest. The wemen in the towns, the wives of artisans ep nd traders lead a seclud- ed life like “all Moslem women and do not take part in production. The femzle proletariat in the towns con- sists almost entirely of domestic ser- vyants. Persian peasant women are afilicted with a twelve-hour working day on the rice, tea and tobacco plan- tations, and have not the alternative great influence in Egypt. It should be stated that Egyptian women take a prominent part in production. Ac- cording to the census of 1897, there were 63,731 women, artisans in Egypt. Nevertheless, speasant women (Fella- heens) constitute the largest section of the Bgyptian female population. The Fellaheens, Egyptian peasant wo- men on the banks of the Nile, per- form the heaviest agricultural work. They are to their husbands mere la- |: bor power, to the same extent as cat- tle is labor power. Moreover, they bear the whole burden of exploitation by the state and by foreign capital. During recent years a large number of women in Egypt have begun to work in the big industries, in cotton cleaning, sugar and tobacco factories. Handicraft and small industries also employ many women. It goes without saying that Egyptian working women are still more exploited than Egyptian working men. Their wages are just half of men’s wages. British capital in Egypt manages even to exploit the labor of the nomadic Bedouin women in carpet making, these carpets fetch- ing high prices in, Cairo. Contrary to Persia and even Turkey polygamy and harem life (attributes of the Moslem world) hardly exist in Egypt. The Women’s Movement was initi- wr ated in Egypt in the beginning of the ng | XX century by Syrian women writers in Cairo. Before the war it was a purely feminjet movement of nation- alist tendency, and embraced only the Egyptian women intellectuals. But during recent years, especially in 1919-20, the period of development of the Egyptian national-liberation move- ment, the Women’s Movement fused with the latter and attracted not only women of the upper and middle elass- es, but also proletarian and peasant women, In the big strikes of 1919 and 1920, in collisions between the masses and British, troops, women took a very active part. They picketed at the gates of factories on strikes, helped to erect barricades in the streets and were subject to rough treatment and arres Women’s demonstrations were fre- quently more numerous than men’s. In the villages women assisted their husbands in damaging railway lines and telegraph wires to impede the transport of troops. Women’s demon- strations took place daily in which women carrying national banners de- manded Egyptian independence from ritish rule. The nationalist women’s movement was under the leadership of women intellectuals. . The most prominent women intel- lectuals engaged in the political move- ment of Egypt are: Sophia Zaglul, the wife of the Egyptian nationalist Zag- lul Pasha, who was arrested by the British, Hannan, the wife of another politician, and others. Women’s influence in a nationalist movement of Egypt became more prominent in 1922. Women agitators worked in towns and villages. But gyptian women are not only fighting for national emancipation, but also for their own enfranchiaement. In Alex- andria the “Committee of the Society of Egyptian Women” demands of the ™ Committee for the elaboration-of the constitution the introduction of claus- es for women’s political rights. The national-revolutionary move- ment of the Egyptian women masses _ is only a prelude to the social class” movement. A Communist Party is al- ready in existence in Egypt, and the transition of proletarian as well as other working women masses from the strug; ainst foreign capital- ism to social’$truggle, is only a ques- tion of time. MAC’S BOOK STORE 27 JOHN R STREET DETROIT Full line of Sociological and Labor Literature. Periodicals and Newspapers How many of your shop-mates read THE DAILY WORKER. Get one of them to subscribe today. monte GENERAL HEADQUARTERS 81 East 10th Street, New York, N. Y. ~ ‘An Industrial Organization For All Workers in the Food Industry THIS IS OUR : g EMBLEM MM TODAY!) Sr... = TODAY! WANTED—A teacher to give private REDLAND POEMS By Bella N. Zilberman. by Beila Ly Hinka, 50c. end stamps to Coast to Coast Book Shop, 1729 Caton Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. lessons in -English grammar and correct pronounciation. Address, The Daily Worker, C. 5. HUUDUGUAADAUOUQAUARUDEA AED OAA AMAL DULL OPEN AIR Tickets in Advance 35c MOONLIGHT PICNIC Given by JEWISH DAILY “FREIHEIT” and | Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia at STICKNEY PARK GROVE (Lyons, IHlinois) This Sat., June 28 Come out for a day of enjoyment in the fresh air together with the revolutionary WORKERS OF ALL NATIONALITIES! Dancing Singing Music To be obtained at the following places: “Freiheit” Office, 1145 Blue | Island Ave.; Ceshinsky’s Book Store, 2720 W. Division St.; Cheski’s Restaurant, 3124 W. Roosevelt Rd., Soviet School, 1902 W. Division St., | Russian Co-Op. Restaurant, 1734 Division St. DIRECTIONS: Take any car to 22nd street, take 22nd St. car to | end of line; take Lyons car to Harlem Ave. ‘CONCERT Races Games At the Gates 50c