Our Moslem Sisters: A Cry of Need from Lands of Darkness Interpreted by Those Who Heard It
Religion
Our Moslem Sisters: A Cry of Need from Lands of Darkness Interpreted by Those Who Heard It
Women -- Orient
There are others among these girls who have been taught in evangelical
schools, who have learned to love Christ, whose faith is strong and
whose trust sustains them and keeps them patient and cheerful amid very
great trials and even cruel treatment from their husbands, "Strengthened
in their endurance by the vision of the Invisible God."
To go back to Mohammedan women. It is surprising how exceedingly
ignorant many of them are, even the women of the higher classes from
whom you might expect better things. A visitor inquired of her
Mohammedan hostess if she would tell her the name of the current
Mohammedan month. "I do not concern myself with such things, you must
ask the Effendi." Their minds seem to be blank except in regard to their
relations to their families, to sleeping, eating, and diseases, to their
clothes, and their servants, and the current gossip of the neighborhood.
Formerly it was not believed that girls were capable of learning
anything, and years ago an Effendi in Tripoli, when urged to have his
daughter taught to read, exclaimed, "Teach a girl to read! I should as
soon try to teach a cat!" But those days are passing and the
Mohammedans are beginning to bestir themselves in the matter of
educating their girls. They are opening schools for girls in all the
cities, though judging from the attainments of some of the teachers, the
girls are not taught very much. When these schools were first opened in
Beirut, the only available teachers were girls who had been in
attendance on the Protestant schools, and some of them had only been
there a few months.
In Sidon there is a large Mohammedan school for girls, where are
gathered from five to six hundred girls. The Koran is the text-book,
reading and writing are taught and needle-work has a large place in the
curriculum.
Years ago an old Effendi was attending the examination in Miss Taylor's
school for Mohammedan and Druze girls. "My two granddaughters are here,"
he said to a missionary sitting beside him. "I was instrumental in
starting a school of our own for girls, and I took my granddaughters
away from here and put them in the new school. One day I went to visit
the school. When I was still at a distance I heard the teacher screaming
at the girls and cursing them, saying, 'May God curse the beard of your
grandfathers, you dogs!' Now, I was the grandfather of two of those
children and I knew they heard enough of such language at home without
being taught it at school, so I brought them back to this good place."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account