Huda Doumat

The late Huda Salibi Doumat was born in Souk el-Gharb in 1874, and was descended from a well-known family with its standing and respect among the people. Her father, Mitri Elias al-Salibi, was inspector general of the Evangelical schools in Mount Lebanon. She was the only girl among seven brothers, many of whom won renown, such as Dr. Najib, Dr. Amin, and Murad al-Salibi in the Philippines, where they occupied important positions in the worlds of politics, medicine, and commerce.

She received her elementary schooling in Shemlan, and thereafter continued her studies at the American School for Girls in Beirut, where she obtained the school's final diploma.

In 1893 she married Professor Jabr Doumat, professor of the Arabic language at the American University of Beirut. She was blessed with six children: Emile Doumat, professor of engineering at the Baghdad High College; Mikhail and Najib, owners of the Doumat factory for milk and its products; Hélène, wife of Khalil Bey Sukkar of Amman; Munira, wife of Dr. Ibrahim Shehadeh of Zahle; and Lulu, wife of Mr. Suleiman Nasr of the Koura.

Her house was a circle that gathered the professors of the University and its students, and she and her husband, the professor of language and grammar, were the very centerpiece of that circle. She was among the first women to work in the women's renaissance: she accompanied the women's associations from their founding and enrolled in most of them; she had the foremost hand in the forming of the Arab Women's Union and in its growth and flourishing; and she was also among the founders of the Lebanese Women's League. She was elected repeatedly vice-president of the Arab Women's Union, and she took an effective part in the Arab Women's Congress held in Beirut fifteen years ago, in the Lebanese delegation that represented Lebanon at the Istanbul congress, and in the reception of the members of the International Women's Union, headed by Mrs. Corbett Ashby.

She took part in all this with a determination that knew no weariness and an unbending zeal that knew no flagging, and neither advanced age nor the weight of family duties held her back from it. And alongside the rights of women she was forever demanding the rights of the homeland and the country; we saw her — and the time is not far off — in the uprising of November 1943, marching side by side with the young men and the girl students, demanding that right be restored to its place and that the country be given its rights in full.

She took great interest in the social and religious affairs whose nature it is to raise man up and advance him.

She died on October 2, 1946, mourned by all who knew her virtues and her lofty character. The Lebanese government conferred upon her the gilded Lebanese Order of Merit in recognition of her generous merit.

May God rest her soul in His widest mercy and lodge her in the expanse of His paradise.