Wahida al-Azma, … the first female doctor in the Syrian Arab Army
The physician, Wahida al-Azma, is the daughter of an ancient Damascene family … Her father was an officer in the Syrian Arab Army .She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Damascus in 1949..A year before her graduation, she was treating the wounded in the Mezzeh Military Hospital during her country’s war against the Israeli enemy in 1948.
When the army leadership announced a competition to accept military doctors, she applied for the contest and was appointed as a doctor, first lieutenant, in the Syrian Arab Army in 1950, to be, with Dr. Nazik Al-Abed, the first two female doctors in the army.
She was dispatched to France by the army leadership to follow her scientific career and specialization in the field of pediatrics where she obtained a certificate of specialization in pediatrics from the University of Paris . She returned to Syria to work in the Ministry of Defense clinics as the chief doctor and pediatrician .
She contributed to the founding of the Syrian Pediatrician Association.
She is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Syrian Medical Journal issued by the Syndicate of Syrian Doctors for a quarter of a century .
Dr. al-Azma, participated in editing the doctor’s magazine issued in Paris in Arabic for five years.
She helped found the Family Planning Association in 1974 and was a volunteer member for 25 years.
She was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Arab World Region in the International Federation For family planning.
She translated some educational books from French into Arabic.
This is how the Syrian woman from older times were and so they will remain, daughters of the great Syrian civilization, that granted the world the alphabet of knowledge, thought, and humanity.
Amal Farhat