Exhibit

“I present my magazine, not as a stranger to burden your shoulders, but rather I present it as an offering to those who desire honor and hopes for themselves.”

- Marie Ajami in Al-Arous, issue 1 vol. 1, Dec. 1910, p. 2.

Marie Ajami & Al-Arous Magazine

About Marie Ajami

Marie Ajami founded the first feminist magazine in Syria titled al-Arous [The Bride] in 1910, independently producing and financing the magazine.[1] She was an active member of the Arab nationalist movement against Ottoman rule and dedicated her feminist magazine to mobilize women “from their chains” and to liberate men “from ingratitude.”[4] After the onslaught of the French occupation in Syria in 1920, “Marie Ajami continued in her resistance against the colonial [French] mandate just as she resisted against the Ottomans.”[5] She faced ruthless attacks by the French colonial Government in Damascus and Beirut who, until 1952, had full control over the media in Syria and Lebanon.[6]

Marie Ajami (1888-1965) was born in Bab Touma Damascus to a Christian Orthodox notable family with nineteen siblings, living most of her life with her sisters. Marie Ajami completed her schooling at the Russian and then the Irish schools in Damascus; she wrote her first article at the age of 13. While she owned their birth house along with her sisters, after the death of their father, Marie Ajami’s uncle (who also became her guardian) took control of her father’s fortune and spent it. Marie Ajami and her sisters were thus required to work to earn a living. Her sisters took care of the house duties and Marie Ajami was responsible for the finances.

Before the age of 18, in 1903 and 1904, Marie Ajami worked as an Arabic literature teacher in a school in the east of Lebanon, Bekaa Valley, and she was also a tutor. In 1906, she got a job as a teacher at the Russian school in Damascus, where she studied as a child.

Between 1906 and 1910, she worked as a correspondent for the big newspapers in Syria and Lebanon such as al-Muqtabis (Damascus), al-Mathhab (Zahle), al-Akhaa (Hamma), al-Hasnaa’ and Lisan al-Hal (Beirut). In 1909, Marie Ajami moved to Alexandria (Egypt) for one year and worked as a school principal at the Young Coptic Girls school (Madrasat al-Banat al-Aqbat). According to Emilie Fares Nasrallah, Marie Ajami directed young girls towards a “deep love and awareness of their strong revolutionary position in the nationalist struggle”. [x]

In 1910, she returned to Damascus and founded her magazine al-Arous which was in operation from 1910 until 1914. Marie Ajami stopped its production during the first world war before resuming operations in 1918 and permanently halting in 1926.

Despite Marie Ajami’s many contributions on the development of Arab journalism and feminism, her place in this history requires deeper investigation.

Marie Ajami at the age of 22 (1910). [1]

Some say women are born to serve their husbands, others say women are born to serve their fathers…I say her rights exist for herself.

  • Marie Ajami in Al-Arous, August 1920, p. 6

Image Gallery

This gallery offers photographs related to Marie Ajami collected from magazines, articles, and historical sources. Portraits of Marie Ajami included here are the only recorded photographs we were able to find of her. See below resources sections for citation details.

Image found in Rai’dat AlArab

^ Photograph of Marie Ajami (third from the right) with a group of Arab nationalist poets and journalists in 1921. From the right: Fawzi Maalouf, Salah Al-Babidi, Marie Ajami, Yousef Yazbek, Maarouf Al-Rusafi, Nadra Alouf, Habib Zahlawi, Jawdat Haidar. [x]

^ Photograph of Marie Ajami with her sisters. This photograph is found in an article written by Marie Ajami’s relative, Sabine Mohasseb Saliba. Saliba conducted an oral history interview with her grandmother, Laurice (seen touching Marie Ajami’s arm in the photo). Laurice lived with Marie Ajami during the 1920s. Top row: Zakiyya holding her baby Lily, Rose, Adele, Laurice (Zakiyya’s daughter), and Marie Ajami. Bottom Row: George Sarrouf (Zakiyya’s son), and Helene. [X]

Illustration of Marie Ajami’s school sign in Syria

“Marie Ajami with Nature”[from Al-Maarif book]

Images of Marie Ajami’s family home in Damascus — pragraph that she led salons here and this collage, ——

من ذا الذي يقول إننا أمة لا يليق بها أن تُمنح الاستقلال، لا تعرف أن تحكم ذاتها بذاتها؟ وأسفاه! حتى الآن لا تزال الأغراض تلعب بنا، والضعف يكم الأفواه، والتحزبات تمثل بنا، فلنسدل على الماضي حجابًا كثيفًا، ولنعمل معًا على إحياء الوطنية في قلوب أبناء سورية وبناتها، لأنه إذا استولت علينا فرنسا لا تجعلنا فرنسيين، ومحال إن حكمتنا بريطانيا أن نصير بريطانيين

ماري عجمي -

About Al-Arous Magazine

Marie Ajami’s purpose in life and her production of al-Arous were geared towards two battles: first, her battle “for the emancipation and education of women in her country”; second her battle for “the liberation of the Arab nation.”[1] Marie Ajami considered these two battles, the emancipation of women and the nation as “linked together since she attributes the political declines of her country to the absence of the role of women.”[2] In line with an Arab feminism that is committed towards total liberation, that is not limtied to women’s rights but rather political economic and social justice, Marie Ajami’s feminist practice from the early twentieth century is similarly reflected in Syrian Ghada al-Samman’s writing decades later: “the liberation of women and respecting her abilities is a national and nationalist duty.”[3],

The magazine includes poems, articles, short stories, speeches and translations of different topics, including science, health, humour, literature, and politics. During its course, al-Arous (The Bride)  moved its publication between the cities of Homs, Damascus, Alexandria and Beirut, due to threats of closure from the Ottomans and the French Governments (respectively) and due to circumstances relating to lack of resources.[4]Al-Arous operated from 1910-1914 and 1918-1925.[5] Between 1910 and 1914, Marie Ajami released three volumes and nine issues of al-Arous, totalling more than 1500 pages; each issue averaged 32 pages. Between 1918 and 1925, seven issues were published, totalling 5400 pages; each issue averaged 64 pages.[6]al-Arous magazine was circulated in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan.[7] The magazine alsohad a presence in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.[8] Due to the anti-colonial nature of Marie Ajami’s media work, during the beginning of the French colonial mandate period, Al-Arous ceased operations in 1926 “because of her [Marie Ajami’s] loud resistance.”[9]

In Marie Ajami’s lifetime, French colonists threatened her and attempted to force her into using her dissident voice to benefit French crimes in Syria; something she continued to fight against her whole life. Al-Arous ceased operations in 1926 “because of her [Marie Ajami’s] loud resistance.”[1] Also in 1926, during the Great Syrian revolt, the French implemented mass-destruction, bombed substantial parts of Damascus, historical sites, and burned many villages.[2]

The deployment of press censorship by the French in Greater Syria was implemented so heavily that, only a few days after the Battle of Maysaloun, French officers approached Marie Ajami asking her to “stop attacking them in her magazine” and to, instead, use her platform to circulate French propaganda.[3] Marie Ajami strongly rejected their proposals which led to the closure of al-Arous on multiple occasions between 1920 and 1926.[4] Marie Ajami documents that it was in fact a large group of journalists and writers who were approached to serve French interests.

بعد أيام قليلة انقضت على استيلاء فرنسا على دمشق، جاءني شرطيّ برقعةٍ يدعوني فيها رئيس الوزراء الجديد إلى اجتماعٍ أراد عقده، فكتبتُ عليها كلمة (تبلّغت) وأبيتُ أن ألبّي الدعوة، وبعد انعقاد الاجتماع، سألتُ عن القصد منه، فقيل لي أنّ مدير إدارة المطبوعات الفرنسية خطب في الحضور وهم من الكتّاب، وعلّمهم كيف يكتبون، ووزّع عليهم ورقًا بلا ثمن، ووعدهم بالمساعدة، ولم يمرّ ردحٌ طويلٌ على ذلك، حتّى طفق أحد معارفي يتردّد عليّ كل مساء محاولًا إقناعي بأنّني إذا هتفت لفرنسا وأنشأت الفصول متعددة الإصلاحات التي تقصد والتي قام الانتداب علينا من أجلها فزتُ بأجرٍ شهريّ ضخم من الذهب الوهّاج، وفاجأته يومها بقولي: ما هي تلك الإصلاحات التي تريد أن أكتب عنها؟ قال: عليّ أن آتيك بقائمتها مرّة بعد أخرى، وعليكِ إقناع القوم بها شفاهًا وخطابةً وكتابةً، قلت له: لِتنجِز فرنسا أوّلًا ما تعدنا به من إصلاحات؛ فأترنّم بذكرها مجّانًا، وكان جوابي هذا له آخر عهدي به

A few days after France took control of Damascus, a policeman came to me with a piece of paper in which the new prime minister invited me to a meeting he wanted to hold. I replied with a note stating ‘I have been informed’ and I refused to accept the invitation. After the meeting was held, I asked about its purpose. I was told that the director of the French Publications Department addressed the audience, who were writers, and instructed them on how to write, distributed paper to them at no cost, and promised them help. It did not take long until one of my acquaintances began coming to me every evening, trying to convince me that if I cheered for France and published welcoming the French reforms in my paper, I would receive a huge monthly wage the worth of large sums of gold. I surprised him when I responded one day: What are those reforms that you want me to write about? He said: I will bring you lists of topics each time and you must convince the people of them through your conversations, speeches and in your writings. I told him: Let France first accomplish the reforms it promises us. When it does so, I will be glad to do this free of charge, this was my last promise to him.

Issues of Al-Arous magazine are housed at the American University of Beirut’s Jafet Library. The following includes digitized selections from the magazine. They were digitized by Dr. Mariam Karim in May of 2024. We are indebted to the librarians and caretakers at Jafet Liberary for ensuring that this history is accessible and available for us.

Outline of below digitized pdf:

  • Front cover of issue 1 volume 1, dated December 1910

  • Introduction to the magazine by Marie Ajami (pg. 1-4 in original)

  • Article titled “Al-Arous” by Marie Ajami (pg.4-9 in original)

  • Article titled “Forward” by Felix Fares, owned of Lisan Al-Itahad Magazine (pg.12-13 in original).

Stack of Ajami’s periodicals at AUB (2024)

Discussion of Al-Arous opening pages and description - ADD HERE

ADD HERE ANOTHER DIGITIZED SCANS FROM Al-AROUS IN LATER YEARS

Discussion of Al-Arous second batch of writing excerpt from Al-Arous Magazine and description - ADD HERE

“The Women’s Movement in Syria and Lebanon” by Marie Ajami (1933)

Marie Ajami’s Refused Elitist & Foreign Manifestations of the Women’s Movement in Syria.

Marie considered the charitable and missionary-based activities of upper-class Syrian women who held themselves as representatives of the feminist movement and who did not care to educate themselves (in that they don’t see value in intellectualism) as counterproductive and “a waste of time.” She considered the lack of interest in educating one’s self in the women’s movement in Lebanon and Syria as detrimental to the feminist struggle: “the country does not need civil servants but workers”, and that “ignorance in slavery is better than ignorance in independence.”[1]  In her essay “Al-nahda al-nisai’yya fi Suriyya wa Lubnan”[2] “The feminist renaissance in Syria and Lebanon”, Marie Ajami advocates that women’s struggle mustn’t be isolated to a few superficial women’s organizations guided by Western missionaries whose work does not reach the majority of people and whose influence is intellectually limited.[3] As Sandy Grande explains in terms of how whitestream follows “a discourse that serves their ethno-political interests and capital investments”,[4] Marie Ajami makes a similar argument and brings attention to the dangers of following foreign women’s direction and establishing women’s organizations in Syria that lack intellectual women, and are foreign-run and charity-based.

In the article, Marie Ajami critiques the lack of intellectualism within a women’s group that only “read novels” and focuses on charity giving. Her critiques on the state of the women’s movement of the early 1930s can be directly tied to her stance on the dangers of foreign education systems in the country and the significance she held on education as vital for revolutionary success. Marie Ajami’s criticism is directed specifically at, what Ahlam Muhtaseb may call “native informant”[6], Syrian elite women who organize book clubs or charity groups without fully committing their efforts to supporting the full needs of their society. The reason for this problem, according to Marie Ajami, is that the women who present themselves as the leaders and who run these organisations are not well-educated and lacked understanding of the significance of sincere intellectualism. This involves demonstrating a dedicated intellectual commitment to advancing national industry and actively utilizing knowledge and skills in the constructive development of society. These are necessary preconditions for the feminist movement to be effective in supporting the needs of the masses, namely the workers. Marie believed that the Syrian women’s movement’s duty to serve workers must be understood as a fundamental responsibility that should be approached with urgency. During the time she wrote the article, the worker’s movement was at the forefront of anti-colonial struggle in Greater Syria.[7]

-

يستنتج مما تقدم أن الدعوة إلى تأييد الصناعة الوطنية من جمعية لا تقصر ما تبتاع على المأكل والملابس الوطنية، وأن الدعوة إلى التهذيب والأدب من جمعية لا تقوى عضو فيها أن تثير العاطفة أو تخاطب العقل، وأن الدعوة إلى الإصلاح الاجتماعي من جمعية لا تقدر أن تتلمس إليه طريقًا غير الذي ترشدها المبشرات الأجنبيات إليه، وأن الدعوة إلى رفع مستوى المرأة وإصلاح شؤونها بتعديل ما تئن منه من الشرائع من جمعية لا تغامر بشيء في سبيل الإرغام على وضع تشريع جديد يضع حدًا للشكاوي والمظالم. أجل أن هذه الدعوات كلها الملقبة بالنهضة النسائية ما تزال ضعيفة خائرة لضعف القائمات بها ولخور في عزائمهن، ولأن أكثرهن ينتحي بها طريق الشهرة لا طريق التضحية والنكران والمغامرة بالوقت والدرس والمفاداة بالمال والنفس.

[Writing about elite women’s clubs] the call to support national industry is from an association that does not limit what it purchases to national food and clothing, that the call for refinement and etiquette is from an association whose members are unable to arouse emotion or address the mind, and that the call for social reform is from an association that is unable to reach the people. They only know how to connect with society through the path that foreign missionary women have instructed them on. The call to raise the status of women and to reform women’s affairs by amending the laws is from an association that does not risk anything in order to force the development of new legislation that puts an end to complaints and grievances. Yes, all of these calls, known as the women’s renaissance, are still weak and exhausted due to the weakness of those who carry them out and the weakness of their resolve, this weakness is because most of them follow the selfish path of fame and the gain of money, not the path of sacrifice, denial, risk of time and lesson.[5]

Writings About Marie Ajami

While little has been written in English on Marie Ajami, Arab writers and feminists have carried Ajami’s voice forward throughout history. Below you will find a selection of articles written about Marie Ajami. These sources have been instrumental for us to learn more about Ajami’s steadfast legacy and her life.

Issa Fattouh

Issa Fattouh, Syrian writer

Colette Khoury, Syrian writer

Khoury, Colette. “Marie Ajami” in Diwan Marie Ajami” Damascus: al-Hai’a al-amma al-Suriyya lil-ktiab. (introduction dated 2000) (2016) 22.

:عن ماري عجمي

لا شك في أنها حتى هذه اللحظة لم تأخذ حقها من التاريخ.. ولم تحتل المكانة التي تليق بها في سجل المجد... ماري عجمي.. واحدة من أهم نساء القرن العشرين السوريات العربيات.. لا لأنها كانت أديبة كبيرة فحسب والجدير بالذكر ان آثارها الأدبية من شعر ونثر وترجمة - وما أكثرها - لم تجمع حتى اليوم في كتاب.. فيما عدا الكتاب الذي طبعته تكريماً لها الرابطة الثقافية النسائية في دمشق وكان ذلك في أواسط الأربعينات أي إبان حياتها. ولا لأنها مثقفة كبيرة وأستاذة في الأدب العربي متميزة.

بقلم الأدبية كوليت الخوري (2000)

List of References

1] Image of Marie Ajami: Source: Laurice Sarrouf Khoury’s Archives (1), found in Un Figure Saillante Du Journalisme Syro-Libanais: Marie Ajami” Ibid.
[2] Khoury, Colette. “Marie Ajami” in Diwan Marie Ajami” Damascus: al-Hai’a al-amma al-Suriyya lil-ktiab. (introduction dated 2000) (2016) 22.
[3] Kawkash, “Mary Ajami” Radio Orient

[x] image of Marie with Men

[4] Yousef, Dalir. “Lamhat min hayyat Marie Ajami”. Syria Untold. (November 6, 2021). https://syriauntold.com/2021/10/26 
[5] Khoury, “Marie Ajami” in Diwan Marie Ajami” 23.
[6] Ajami, Mary. “Al-Arous”. First issue, December, 1910. Retrieved from American University of Beirut digital online exhibit, “Women pioneers in Arab press – journals”(2023): https://online-exhibit.aub.edu.lb/exhibits/show/women-pioneers-in-arab-press/ajami-biography/alarus