Qudsia Haj HusseinQudsia Haj Hussein

Qudsia Haj Hussein was a pioneer of women’s education in the city of Deir ez-Zor, Syria. She overcame many obstacles and challenges to pursue her own education and to provide opportunities for other girls in her community. She was one of the first Syrian women to graduate from middle school and high school, and she became a teacher and a principal of girls’ schools in Deir ez-Zor. She was a role model and a leader who influenced the social and cultural transformation of her city. In this article, you will learn about her remarkable life story and her legacy for future generations of Syrian women.

Qudsia Haj Hussein; a name engraved in the memory of the women’s cognitive renaissance in the city of Deir ez-Zor. She started her educational journey in 1936 in the public schools of Deir ez-Zor, where there were two primary schools that taught girls: Al-Zahraa’ and Al Khansaa’. After she finished primary education in 1942, the class teacher submitted a proposal to the ministers of education in Damascus to open a middle school for girls. The offer was approved, however, there wasn’t a building for the school, so she transformed the primary school’s warehouse to a classroom for middle school students. A second obstacle was not having a teaching staff for this level, so a number of the top teachers volunteered to teach this sole class in the city for free, and the students took the middle school final exam (Le Brevet) in 1945. There were 9 students in the class, 4 of them passed and Kudisa Haj Hussein was one of them. It wasn’t possible to open a secondary school in the city, so she moved to Aleppo to study in an all-girls secondary boarding school where she took the “Baccalauréat” (Secondary school final exam) and passed. She was later appointed as a teacher in Al-Zahraa’ school in Deir ez-Zor. The director of education in the city encouraged these women in their jobs as teachers and then principals of the girls’ schools, where he guided their way of interacting with parents to attract as many girls to the schools as possible and engage them in the education system. He always said: “Do not challenge customs and traditions, do not give up wearing the abaya or mantle on the way to school so that parents do not resent educating girls, be a role model for future generations, for everyone is watching your behavior inside and outside the school”. The pace of women’s education accelerated in the city and turned into a career path. The education of these pioneering women created a change in the community, where now education is a demand for most girls in the city and there’s a powerful motive for parents to encourage their girls to go to school, and now schools have become radiating centers of culture, awareness, and civilization.