Dr. Hitti and His Wife Speak to "The Woman's Voice"

We do not exaggerate when we say that we take pride in Dr. Philip Hitti and his endeavors in the cause of the Arab question and in explaining it to Western public opinion. Yet we ought not to forget the one who, from behind the curtain, extends to him a helping hand: I mean his worthy wife, Mrs. Mary.

I met her for the first time, and it was as though I had known her before. She began speaking to me with enthusiasm and conviction about her husband's mission toward his country, and about her own feelings, saying:

"Although I was born and have lived all my life in America, I feel a longing for this country. Yes, I have visited it twice — the first time twenty-three years ago, and the second today. And you see me looking with delight at everything around me, proud of the independence of this small country.

"But allow me to say that our country needs a tremendous effort to do away with the signs of disorder that I touch and see here. Yesterday I spent two hours at the post office in order to complete the business of putting a letter into the foreign mail. The confusion and crowding were beyond anything you can imagine. If only you were in America, where you would see order prevailing and time counted as gold, with no room for long, fruitless waiting.

"And never in my life have I heard shooting incidents like those I heard this week in town. Truly, you have rivaled Chicago: everyone carries his revolver and uses it whenever he pleases — why, the driver of the car that took us up to the mountain drew his revolver on a man because he did not clear the way for his automobile."

I could not avoid entering with her into the customary topic: "woman." And her description of her private life at home was the best answer, and a lesson, for our women.

She said: "The level of the country will not rise unless the level of woman rises. And you see me contributing my share in this respect, as a duty incumbent upon me. I look after the house, and I also fill the post of secretary to my husband, helping him gather his material and writing it out for him. In the war years I took part in passive defense, working in one of the hospitals. And I do not know how your women can spend their time in visits and in talk of fashions and the like."

Here I laughed, because she — thank heaven — has not yet made the acquaintance of most of our ladies, for whom receptions, card-playing, and talk of "nylon" stockings form an essential part of life.

Here she went on to say: "In any case, this applies to your men as well. The difference is that the woman talks of fashions, while the man passes his time talking politics. As for work — that is left to God!!..."

When I asked her about her children, her face shone with the light of motherhood as she said: "I have one daughter, twenty-five years old. She has finished her higher studies, and she is now engaged to an American young man — but one who has mastered Arabic well (in the American manner)! My daughter shared in the American war effort, for she worked in the hospitals. She wanted to come with me, since she does not know this country, and she will visit you soon."

And when I said to her, "I gather from what you say that you will remain in the country with Dr. Hitti," she answered: "I am certain that my husband can serve his country abroad to the best advantage, for the country needs someone to explain its message to others. And I will not deny to you that I am American in mold; for that reason I prefer to live in America, where I shall go on doing my part in helping my husband in the cause of the Arab question."

At this point Dr. Hitti drew near us, and I drew him into sharing our conversation, opening with the following question — or rather the following complaint: What is to be done, Dr. Hitti, so that woman among us may reach the level of the American woman, whom you know well? He answered me calmly: "Do not be pessimistic, my daughter. We have no need to set up the American woman as the measure of our progress. The Arab woman must advance according to our own traditions and our own development, and in our Arab heritage we have the best guide to follow.

"Be assured that I have observed great progress in woman here on this present visit. Twenty-three years ago I visited this country, and on that visit I did not glimpse a single lady who came to receive me. I still remember that I knew Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura — yet I never saw her face until today, when she came to visit me unveiled. And your own coming, my daughter, is the best proof of what I say, for this is the first time I have met and talked with an Arab girl without her being afraid that someone might see her with a man who is neither her maternal nor her paternal uncle!!

"Still, I ask for swifter progress for our ladies. They must show broader concern and activity in organizing their rights. So far I have heard of nothing but resolutions without execution. Take the women's congress in Cairo. I followed its proceedings from America with the greatest interest, and to this day I am still waiting for its resolutions — or some of them — to be carried out.

"And your renaissance must spring from the core. Let the girl be educated, and do not bolt the doors in her face if she wishes to complete her higher studies, whether here or in China!

"I do not deny that the greatest work for a girl is marriage; but she must not be shut within this narrow horizon while she waits for it. Leave her free, and encourage her, to study and to work. I have one daughter, and I left her the freedom to decide her future as she wished. I always encouraged her to kindle her own personality by herself, and I am certain that if our women did with their daughters as I have done, the result would without doubt be encouraging for woman's emancipation. And I do not think that man is the reason this has not come about — but woman herself!!"