Louris Maher is the first Syrian woman to graduate as a doctor from Damascus University. Born in Damascus in 1910, she enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine after graduating from the Françiscaine School in the Shaalan neighborhood of Damascus. Her success wasn’t just limited to her degree, but also by the scientific books she published in the field of pediatrics, and her establishment of a factory to produce baby food in a time when Syria was under siege due to falling under a fascist rule during WWll. Establishing a local factory helped relieve Syria from one of the burdens of the siege. However, the main achievement and the reason behind her success is Louris’s courage in challenging the status quo and society’s limiting ideals and traditional concepts of a woman’s role in Syria. These traditional concepts and patriarchal ideals have had negative effects that we still live through today. It is up to us to emulate women and individuals like Louris for the sake of a future Syria that empowers our women (particularly after years of war) and is built on the foundations of gender equality.