From Difa Al-Nisa to Masalat Al-Nisa in greater Syria: Readers and writers debate women and their rights, 1858-1900

In this article we present a threefold argumentchronological, geographical, and socioculturalin order to demonstrate that interest in the woman question and the lively and at times charged debate that it stimulated began in Greater Syria in the early naha (awakening) period and persisted throughout, drawing into its orbit leading intellectuals as well as members of the general public and permeating even peripheral areas of Greater Syria. We do so by examining the public reflection of this debate in the early naha press, mainly privately published Beirut journals and newspapers.