Page:The young Moslem looks at life (1937).djvu/101

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HOME AND THE FAMILY
87

ings; and where the girls would have the advantages of modern education just as their brothers do.

The house of Sayyid Ibrahim where the Sunday meeting of the Y.M.M.A. was to be held was an old-fashioned, Oriental building in the heart of the most ancient part of the city. It was thoroughly out of keeping with the modern dreams and aspirations of this group of young social and religious revolutionaries; nevertheless, it formed an interesting and appropriate setting for such a discussion as we were to hear, because of those very elements of contrast which it provided so strikingly. On our arrival I was escorted into a large room in the men's apartments, where some chairs were arranged for the meeting which was to take place, while the Memsahiba was led by our host into the women's apartments to meet his mother, his young wife, and his sisters. They could not appear before men who were not of their family, and as a stranger I was not permitted to enter their part of the house, nor was it considered proper on my part even to look in that direction.

Before the members arrived, Sayyid Ibrahim and I walked in the enclosed courtyard outside the large drawing room where the meeting of the Y.M.M.A. was to be held. Here he told me more about his family, while the Memsahiba visited in the zenana, or women's quarters. He reminded me that he belonged to one of the oldest and very best Moslem families of the city. His father and mother were both old, and of course were jealous of their good name as orthodox