"Where do our girls study? A pertinent question, which it is good to ask and good to answer. 'The Woman's Voice'
will undertake this task as far as it is able."
When the editorial management of "The Woman's Voice" entrusted me with the task of visiting the girls' schools of Beirut, and then those beyond it, I had no trouble choosing the school with which to begin: the Ahliah Girls' School stands in my mind, as it stands in the minds of everyone, as a true symbol of the Lebanese woman's fierce struggle in the cause of knowledge, right, and freedom. And when this national women's institute opened its heart, thirty years ago, to the girls of my country seeking learning and light, there were in all the land of the homeland, from one end to the other, none but foreign institutes, to be counted on the fingers of one hand.
The school stands in "Wadi Abu Jamil," and one entering it may feel, at first sight, a certain constriction; for its massive wooden door, generally shut except for a small passage in its middle, recalls what houses were like in the bygone ages of darkness. But hardly had I passed a little way inside this door when I was received by a beautiful room, which I later learned was the principal's office, and there spread out before my eyes, to the left, a wide yard for athletic games of every kind. I felt at once that I was in a refined educational atmosphere.
I asked to see the principal, Mrs. Widad Cortas, who welcomed me most graciously, especially when she learned that I was the representative of "The Woman's Voice." Then she began to recount to me, with full conviction and warmth, a glimpse of the school's history and its present mission. Among what she said