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Zerefeh Bashur

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Zerefeh Bashur, MD (Safita, Syria; 1884 – 1968) was the first female licensed physician in the Levant.[1][2]

Education and practice

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Zerefeh Bashur was born in 1884 into an Orthodox Christian family in Safita, Syria, then a part of the Ottoman Empire.[3]

Born into a family of physicians, Zerefeh often accompanied her father and older brothers in their clinics. She noticed that the patients were predominantly men, as many of the women would not expose themselves to physicians, who were exclusively male. This prompted her to decide on a career in medicine for herself – a noteworthy feat, given that males during this time in the Ottoman Empire typically did not study past the 5th grade, and females would end their studies in the 2nd grade.[4]

Zerefeh began her studies in the American Protestant School in Safita, which she continued in Tripoli (in what is now Lebanon) in the Tripoli Girls School.

Following in the footsteps of her brothers, who had received their degrees from the University of Illinois,[5] Zerefeh convinced her father to let her pursue a medical degree in the United States. She left for the US in 1907, enrolling in the University of Illinois College of Medicine that same year, and receiving her medical degree in 1911.[6]

Dr. Bashur returned to the Middle East after completing her training, and practiced in Tripoli and Safita until her death in 1968, bringing modern medicine to women in the Middle East for the first time, and delivering thousands of newborns over the course of a career that spanned over half a century.[7]

Her nephew was Dr. Fouad Bashour.

References

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  1. ^ العربية, منظمة المرأة. "arabwomenorg.org | منظمة المرأة العربية". english.arabwomenorg.org. Retrieved 2019-10-13.
  2. ^ "انفوغرافيك: الحركة النسائية في سوريا". www.rozana.fm (in Arabic). Retrieved 2019-10-13.
  3. ^ campus), University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign (1921). The alumni record of the University of Illinois, Chicago departments: colleges of medicine and dentistry, School of pharmacy. University of Illinois.
  4. ^ "ظريفة بشور اول طبيبة مارست المهنة بسورية". mo7it.yoo7.com (in Arabic). Retrieved 2019-10-13.
  5. ^ "1902 graduating class, University of Illinois College of Medicine :: College of Medicine Class Photos (University of Illinois at Chicago)". collections.carli.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-13.
  6. ^ "1911 graduating class, University of Illinois College of Medicine :: College of Medicine Class Photos (University of Illinois at Chicago)". collections.carli.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-13.
  7. ^ "ظريفة بشور اول طبيبة مارست المهنة بسورية". mo7it.yoo7.com (in Arabic). Retrieved 2019-10-13.