Sfyr Saugbtprfl nf llagar A JUra for tljr Homrtt of Arabia Mrs. i’amupl fH. Zrormpr WOMAN’S BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS Reformed Church In America 25 East 22d Street New York City ISSUED APRIL, 1910- THE ONLY WELL OF SWEET WATER ON THE ISLAND OF BAHREIN. iaiujltters of ©agar. A for tlje Uumni ot Arabia. Mrs. Samuel M. Zvvemer. The position of woman, due to Islam, is the chief reason for the present backward state of Arabia. Man is first and last, and is lord and owner of the women and girls in his household. “Her marital rights are scouted, while, as a rule, her marital duties are jealously exacted.” Dr. Dennis says: “One of the most conspicuous insignia of false religious systems is their treatment of women. Men seem to be bewildered and undone by her very existence.” Islam is no exception ; many of their proverbs show the spirit in which they regard women. “A slave, a drudge and a disgrace, a temp- tation and a terror, a blemish and a burden, at once the touch- stone and stumbling block of human systems, the sign and shame of the non-Christian world.” How would it feel to have this description applied to you? HER CONDITION. You can imagine the condition of such a one. She has no lib- erty to go where she will, but is shut up in a zenana or harem, not allowed any intellectual culture, she must not be taught to read or write — it is both dangerous and unnecessary. Physically, spiritually, morally, she is demoralized, she is kept a prisoner, she is beaten without restraint, neglected when sick, or worse than neglected, she undergoes many things at the hands of igno- rant native practitioners. She is married at a tender age, other wives are brought in, they may be friends and live in friendly re- lation, but it is more than possible they will not ; therefore, whenever possible the husband will have separate establishments for each one. The sexes are not permitted to meet socially; the men’s and women’s quarters in a house are entirely separate, and if a woman is sick or in trouble, no male physician may give relief, it would be a disgrace, and so the necessity of woman’s work for women. The general ignorance of the people as to hygiene, sanitation, medical treatment, does lead to untold suffering, especially to women. Cases could be indefinitely multiplied of their treat- ment, or want of it, with much unnecessary suffering and loss of life. Many a limb, and member and life, might have been saved if knowledge had been theirs. A prescription for ophthalmia in one district is, black pepper, collyrium, and vinegar, made into a VILLAGE TOURING. paste and rubbed on the conjunctiva. If the patient retains the sight it is the “will of God,’’ if it is lost, the same fatalistic faith holds good. Dust from the roadside shaken on an ulcer is ex- pected to cure it — “if God wills”; a few verses from the Koran written on paper and then washed off into a cup of water and taken internally will cure a bad attack of malaria. Their empty lives and minds are a call for enlightenment, their superstitions also are a plea for something to help them; their physical sufferings need intelligent aid ; their sins need our Saviour. Work for women on the east coast of Arabia was begun June I, 1896, and has been steadily growing in each sta- tion until now we have hospital accommodation and dispen- saries for women, small primary schools and Sunday schools for girls, with regular Bible teaching and reading. We have faith and hope that in the near future broader and higher educational work will be started among the girls and women. A thirst for knowledge must first be created; women must learn self-respect before they rise to any desire for intellectual knowledge. Their very thought will have to be turned over and right side up ; they are still in the “dark ages,” consigned and kept there by their male relations and owners. The continual dropping of water on a very hard rock will wear it away in time. And so our lady- workers continue to sow the seed — on tours by- donkey', by boat and on foot, visiting the women in their homes in the villages, inviting and receiving them into their own homes, teaching them in school and dispensary — the aim is always the same — to bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone can raise them up and purify them. Here is what one of the workers on tour in the villages writes : “At the first halting place we alight from the donkey', right at the door of the schoolmaster’s house. He politely receives us and dismisses the scholars and places the schoolroom at our dis- posal. The news is quickly spread abroad that a foreign woman has come and into the hut the women and children flock. They are rather timid and shy at first, but I take my sun hat off and begin to place my medicine bottles in order, tonic, cough mixture, eye lotion, liniment, etc. As I look up about thirty' women or more have crowded in the small room. First of all, when there is a lull in the conversation, I tell them ‘I am your friend, I have come to do you good, just listen to the words from God’s Book; then, after reading and explanation, comes the medical treatment.’ ” In the schools the pupils are irregular in their attendance. A missionary writes after being in the school a few months : “Sev- eral of the girls have been married since I took the school. It seems perfectly ridiculous to think of these children having hus- bands. One evening not long ago, I heard crying in the huts near the Mission house and inquired and found that it was a wife (one of the school girls) , being beaten by her husband. When she came to school a few days later her person bore abundant marks of the treatment she had received. These poor children have very little idea of what real love is. Another little girl of WAITING ROOM IN HOSPITAL. about twelve has been divorced, and still another of about eigh- teen years was married to a man who I found out afterwards was her fourth husband; one had died, two former husbands had divorced her.” Of such material are the girls who come to us to be taught, but I know that the few hours they spend in the school are oases in very desert lives and the love and care shown them are not lost, neither are the Scripture verses and hymns which they learn. Of the need of medical work among women there is no doubt. Read what one of the women doctors wrote : “During the two weeks I have been here we have had twenty operations on the eye, one amputation, the removal of a large tumor, and numer- ous teeth extractions. In medicine we have had pleurisy, pneu- monia, tuberculosis, tetanus, smallpox, leprosy, paraplegia, dif- ferent varieties of heart lesions, and other interesting cases.” And back of this list of diseases how much suffering there is, only a doctor could explain. And the patients come for treat- ment when the disease is far advanced and every remedy known to them has been tried. All these lines of work are so many opportunities for a woman to present the Gospel to women. We are laying a train of dynamite, as it were ; suffering womanhood awaits the skill of the woman physician ; dying souls need the message of love, which she only can give. There are opportunities for teachers and evangelists who will train the young and teach them to live pure lives and to carry the light into homes and lives darkened by sin and superstition. And we ask you who “stay by the stuff” to watch and pray with us until the nation is “born again.” When Garibaldi drew up his ragged and defeated troops under the wall of Rome in 1849, he said : “Soldiers, I have nothing to offer you but hunger and thirst, hardship and death; but I call on all who love their country to join with me.” And they joined him by the hundreds. He appealed to their love. The appeal of Christ to His Church is still “Lovest thou Me?” May the love of Christ constrain us to see the very forms and hear the very cry of these daughters of Hagar. “Sorrowful women’s faces, hungry, yearning; Wild with despair, or dark with sin and dread, Worn with long weeping for the unreturning, Hopeless, uncomforted. Dear Heart of Love, canst Thou forgive the blindness That let Thy child sit selfish and at ease By the full table of Thy loving kindness, And take no thought for these? As Thou hast loved me, let me love, returning To these dark souls the grace Thou givest me ; And oh, to me impart Thy deathless yearning To draw the lost to Thee !”