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We hear annually in Albany of the 'great silent majority' of women who do not want to vote. On a recent visit to Palestine, these words continually repeated themselves in my mind, as we met hundreds of the women of the country, completely shrouded in black and with figured veils over their faces. They moved through the streets silently, noiselessly by like ghosts from the tomb. How did these women look, what are they thinking, are they content? I kept asking myself. I had just read a paper which had been presented in London by a notable Mohammedan, who had emphasized the statement that the women of his people were 'happy and contented'. They liked secluded lives best and made no effort to escape from their present environment because they were so very satisfied, he had repeated again and again. This apparently was his apology to the Western world, for the position of the women of the East. Fortunately we were introduced to some of these women and had the opportunity of speaking with them face to face.
Our first call was with the wife of a gentleman who for sixteen years had been Mayor of Jerusalem. The family stand as among the best in the city and is known as 'progressive'.