“Personal papers in Britain and the Homeland” … A book by Dr. Najah Al-Attar

A new documentary book, written in an innovative manner combining the personal and collective aspects, has been provided by Dr. Najah Al-Attar to our national and Arab libraries. This book   summarizes some of her long experience and accumulated expertise over many decades of work in the cultural, political, educational and life fields as well.

Dr. Al-Attar’s book, “Personal Papers in Britain and the Homeland”, is unique in combining her personal life experience with the political experience through which she has consistently served her homeland and nation and just causes. She went on to correct what Western propaganda has done to falsify the facts around her homeland, spreading false fabrications and allegations in Western societies in an effort to push their people to stand with existing regimes there, especially Britain and the United States, in their  anti-Arab policies.

In her new book, Dr. Al-Attar sought to introduce the reader to some stages of her personal life in order to communicate some of her thoughts and experience in an integrated and seamless way that addresses both mind and soul. She began her book by devoting a chapter to her husband, Major General Mohamed Majid Al-Azama, who played an important role in supporting and encouraging her to reach what she had achieved in the world of culture, thought and politics.

The book included many details of their travel together to Britain to study specifically the University of Edinburgh where he pursued his studies at the prestigious Academy of Surgeons while Dr. Al Attar studied literary criticism to obtain a doctoral degree in this specialty.

Between 1955 and 1959 Dr. Al Attar took up science and refined her experiences in Britain. For these years she devoted seven chapters in her book “Personal Papers in Britain and the Homeland”, where she sets out many details of her entire life in university in particular and in British society in general, which is abundant with many contradictions in dealing with various societal and intellectual issues, including expats, women, work and significant class disparities.

Under the heading ,”End of a phase”, referring to the end of the study and life phase in Britain, Dr. Al-Attar devoted a new chapter in which she outlined her ideas and perspectives from that stage. She emphasized that every individual is responsible and everyone who does not feel his responsibility is a factor of demolition and an obstacle in his nation’s life.

It is the sense of responsibility that drives the writer to produce and write and leads the heroes to battle and leaders to confront crises and the press to struggle for an idea or in the interest of the nation.

The Harvard seminar, which lasted for several weeks, and Dr. Al-Attar’s participation in its discussions, has a large share of the new book. It revealed many facts about the exposed role of the Israeli occupation entity in the meetings held by American and Western universities under bright names and titles, in order to promote the ideas of false anti-Arab Zionist propaganda that exploits the ignorance of public opinion about the history of our country, the secrets of Zionism and the history of Palestine.

In her book, Dr. Al-Attar also reveals a dangerous aspect of the objectives of Harvard Seminar, which was discussing in that session the Vietnam issue. Washington officials tried to promote that America defended democracy by bombing Hanoi and other cities to cover up the crime of using the atomic bomb, claiming that Washington was safeguarding Vietnamese lives.

Likewise, American officials have consistently falsified the facts about the suffering of Negroes in America, as she says in her book, “How America talks about freedoms, and the protection of democracy while still living in an atmosphere of racial discrimination?

The last part of her book is devoted to memories and follow-ups from the homeland that she personally lived at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s of the last century.

Dr. Al-Attar concludes that “the enemy supported by America is trying to create new illusions through noise and tumult.. “We know from the experience of the days that have passed that these intimidations have failed. Those who destroyed the former myth of the US- backed enemy are able to destroy the later myth of that enemy.

The book is located in 236 pages of medium size and is published by the Syrian General Authority.

Amal Farhat