Steel & Silk: Men and Women who Shaped Syria 1900-2000

Syria has led the Arab World in many ways for the past 100 years. It was the headquarters of the Arab nationalist movement in the 1910s and among the region's earliest and most vibrant democracies in 1918. Legislation giving women the vote was introduced to the Syrian parliament before a similar measure passed in the US in 1920.

Syrians lost their independence to the French in 1920 in the Battle of Maysaloun--and Moubayed tells the story of a young Syrian woman who ripped off her veil before...