First Eastern Women's Congress, also known as First General Congress of Oriental Women and First Oriental Women's Congress was an international women's conference which took place in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

between 3 July and 10 July 1930. The conference was arranged by the General Union of Syrian Women under the leadership of

Nour Hamada Nour Hamada (born between 1887 and 1898, died in 1962) was a Lebanese poet and feminist. She is one of the major figures that strived for feminism causes and gender equality in the Arab region. Biography Early life Hamada was born in the rural v ...

, with participants from the Arab World and Eastern Asia.

History

Syria joined the

International Woman Suffrage Alliance The International Alliance of Women (IAW; french: Alliance Internationale des Femmes, AIF) is an international non-governmental organization that works to promote women's rights and gender equality. It was historically the main international org ...

in 1929, and attended the 11th Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

that same year. The Berlin Congress formed the idea to organize the women of the Middle East internationally in the same manner as the Women's movement of the West. Additionally, in parallel to this, the

First Arab Women's Congress The First Palestine Arab Women's Congress, also First Arab Women's Congress, or the Palestinian Arab Women's Congress was a women's rights conference held in Jerusalem on 26 October 1929. It was organised by the Arab Women's Association of Palesti ...

was arranged in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

in 1929 by the

Arab Women's Executive Committee The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...

in connection to the

Palestine Arab Congress The Palestine Arab Congress was a series of congresses held by the Palestinian Arab population, organized by a nationwide network of local Muslim-Christian Associations, in the British Mandate of Palestine. Between 1919 and 1928, seven congresses w ...

. All this lead the way to the First Eastern Women's Congress. The call to arrange a conference for Eastern women similar to that in Berlin was voiced by

Saiza Nabarawi Saiza Nabarawi,( ar, سيزا النبراوي) also spelt as Siza Nabrawi or Ceza Nabarawi, (born Zainab Mohamed Mourad Nabarawi, ar, زينب محمد مراد النبراوي), (1897–1985) was an Egyptian journalist educated in Paris, and w ...

, and answered by Nour Hamada, who took the task of arranging it. Penny A. Weiss, Megan Brueske:
Feminist Manifestos: A Global Documentary Reader
' The First Eastern Women's Congress of 1930 was a pioneering event, as the first of its kind to unite the women of the Middle East and Asia. Avra Theodoropoulous attended as the representative of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. The topics discussed were "equality in divorce law, child marriage, labour, education, alcohol, social hygiene, Arabic literature, handicrafts, and national industry". The resolutions adopted was the abolition of polygamy and child marriage, to raise the age of marriage for girls to 16, to make education compulsory for women and to make a professional life with equal pay for equal work possible. It was followed by the

Second Eastern Women's Congress Second Eastern Women's Congress, also known as Second General Congress of Oriental Women and Second Oriental Women's Congress was an international women's conference which took place in Tehran in Iran in between 27 November and 2 December 1932. It ...

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

in Iran in 1932. Pernille Arenfeldt, Nawar Al-Hassan Golley:
Mapping Arab Women's Movements: A Century of Transformations from Within
'

References

1930 conferences 1930 in Asia Events in Damascus Women's suffrage Women's conferences 1930 in women's history July 1930 events 20th century in Syria Women in Syria

History

See also

References