To Lebanon... From a Green Summit

In the first week of last September the First Arab Cultural Congress was held at Beit Mery (Lebanon). The Woman's Voice asked the brilliant woman of letters Miss Afifa Saab, member of the official Lebanese delegation to the congress, to write for her readers, so eager for her writing, a word about this congress.

From the dawn of the Arab revival until today we have hovered in thirst, seeking the spring from which to draw the elements of unity and strength for this nation, that it might return to its first course — a nation proud, noble, free, and bearing a message. Yet we won nothing but a glance that moistens without quenching, and remains as far as can be from supplying the elements of unity and achieving the highest aim. We went on pursuing our goal, and we had a struggle of politics, a struggle of pens, a struggle of platforms, a struggle of arms, a struggle of parties and organizations. This struggle, in its various fields and forms, availed something — but an availing like dewdrops, which moisten without quenching.

Yet we came upon the wellspring on the second day of September, 1947 — the day the First Cultural Congress of the League of Arab States convened at Beit Mery, Lebanon. It came as an answer to the longings in Arab souls, an ordering of the scattered effort they were expending, and a directing of forces toward their common goal by the straightest of roads.

The congress defined its aim in clear terms: 'Its aim is the preparation of the good Arab citizen.' If we succeed in preparing the good Arab citizen tomorrow, we shall assuredly succeed in attaining the good Arab nation the day after.

On the Green Summit

And Lebanon was the place chosen for the First Arab Cultural Congress. Lebanon is worthy of it — worthy of it by the unanimous verdict of the delegations of the Arab states. For Lebanon is the center from which the modern Arab renaissance in the sciences, letters, and language sprang forth. It is the people that enjoys the largest proportion of the educated. It is the people launched toward renewal, ready for new phases, receptive to intellectual leaps and social emancipation. It is the country where woman enjoys the widest range of freedom and scope, and the fullest opportunities for realizing her personality. It is, besides, the beautiful mountain to whose summits Arab souls flee whenever the summer heat scorches them and they crave the moist, perfumed breezes. So it fell to Beit Mery to witness this historic event, to embrace it, open its bosom to it, and cast its shade upon it. At Beit Mery there gathered some sixty-odd representatives of ten Arab countries, joined by a hundred participants, to lay the first lines for preparing the good Arab citizen by the surest, soundest, and straightest of roads to the goal — the road of culture. And they worked for ten days in the shade of the pines, in the shade of the Arab flags, and in the shade of the authentic Arab spirit.

The Darkness Lifts

On that green summit, in those shades, in the light filtering through the trees, I saw groups and clusters. I saw the Egyptian, the Iraqi, the Syrian, the Saudi, the Palestinian, the Jordanian, the Yemeni, the Libyan, the Moroccan, and the Lebanese. Poetry passed around here, jests scattered there, and yonder an earnest, intensely concentrated discussion. Gathered in the light, they see one another, now that the veils woven by illusion — thickened further by alien, imposed propaganda — have fallen away in tatters. They see one another as full brothers, heirs of that splendid civilization which bound Baghdad to Andalusia. Its essence still stirs within them — the essence of devotion to knowledge, the sanctification of justice, and the practice of gentleness and tolerance. Then they feel their great responsibility: to raise up that civilization anew in countenance, authentic in spirit and substance. We know of no summons that has gathered in the far ends of the Arab world as the call to prepare the good Arab citizen has gathered them. Herein lies our proof to the world, and our leap into history: that we are proceeding to our future by the road that does not stray and the means that does not deceive, with a unanimity that no unanimity has matched.

The Scientific Spirit

If the congress's task is to study the means of preparing the good Arab citizen by way of culture, that alone suffices to mark it with the scientific stamp: its members enter the halls of study and discussion with scientific truth as their guide, prepared to receive divergence of views, variance of theories, and clash of arguments with the open mind that is the first condition of scientific scrutiny and the surest road to truth. The good does not lie in there being no difference of viewpoints; the good lies in the holders of differing viewpoints being able to devote themselves impartially to truth, and in scrutiny leading to the adoption of what is best. For opinions, however they differed and however their paths branched, met at the goal to which all had dedicated their intent in sincerity, setting it above selfishness, fanaticism, and narrowness of horizon. And so few indeed were the resolutions not carried by unanimity.

We Are Not Afraid

It fell to the congress to determine the common national cultural measure within whose circle all Arab students would meet. On the subject of the common measure, Dr. Jamil Saliba, member of the Syrian delegation and inspector general of Syrian education, said what I believe to be the loftiest thing said in this regard:

'We are not afraid to take, after this step, further steps. Rather we hope that the circle of the common measure will widen until it leads to unification, so that there will be not a common measure but a unity of curricula; for we want human values not to differ between one Arab country and another. We joined together and rose high, without forgetting reality.'

We are not afraid. And what have we to fear?

There is no more telling reply to the alarms that echoed in the air — that there was someone afraid. How should the fear of cultural unity in the Arab lands be imputed to any country, when each has in it its own view and its own direction; when cultural unity is a scientific means of rejoining what has been severed of the Arab nation's civilization; when the backward among these countries must rise to the level of the advanced, not the advanced descend to the level of the backward; and when no country is bound by restriction if it wishes to raise its culture as high as it pleases — provided it realizes this common measure we have desired as a bond among the new generations, unifying their feeling, tightening the ties of their brotherhood, and spreading harmony through their communities and their highest ideals.

And the Cultural Committee of the League of Arab States was tactful in the extreme, skillful in the extreme, when it laid before the congress the formula defining its task, saying:

The congress's task is to examine two matters:

1. To set a common minimum of subjects of Arabic culture, to be taught to the students of the Arab countries in the primary and secondary stages of instruction.

2. To improve the methods of teaching the Arabic language.

There is nothing in this formula to suggest apprehension or fear.

The congress began its work with three women delegates in the official Lebanese delegation: the writer of this letter, on the history committee, and Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura and Mrs. Widad Cortas on the national education committee. Among the participants entitled to attend the general sessions were ten Lebanese women and twenty-seven Syrians. But scarcely had the congress taken its first step when women's activity moved into the front ranks. The women participants divided the administrative work among themselves: among them were the assistant, the secretary, the organizer, and the director of bulletins, publications, and invitation cards. Carrying out this work sometimes required them to stay up past midnight. Thanks to this activity, the administrative organization won the admiration of observers and followers alike.

Nor was their activity confined to administrative work: in every circle and gathering they joined the evening conversation, debated, and discussed. In the general sessions they put forward proposals and shared in the deliberations. Perhaps the best of all this was what was observed in them generally: an ease without vulgarity, and a sobriety without rigidity. In their freedom there was life and cheer, and there was awareness, earnestness, and application. All together, it is the finest example of what the Arab woman can be when she carries the responsibility of her freedom.

His Excellency the Lebanese Prime Minister announced that he saw fit to award a decoration in memory of the women's activity at the First Arab Cultural Congress, to be deposited with the Secretariat-General of the League of Arab States, so as to avoid confining it to a single lady. Let us record this for the completeness of the record.

And now: the First Arab Cultural Congress is but one of a succession of steps by which the League of Arab States watches over the ordering of Arab life. It moves that life from scattered effort to collected effort; from dispersal to concentration; from sentimental attempts to affirm unity and realize it, to building it upon foundations and rules of science and morals; from confining study to one side of Arab life and not another, and to one Arab country and not another, to a study of the subject in all its sides and aspects — a study with specialization, comprehensiveness, and depth, extending to all the Arab countries. From this congress there has sprung a call to further congresses: a congress on the equivalence of academic diplomas in the Arab countries; a literary congress; a social congress to examine dress, customs, and Arab social life; and a congress on university culture — not to mention the congresses on Arab antiquities and Arab legislation already convened or soon to convene.

And while each of our Arab countries bends over its own particular internal affairs — distinguishing, educating, providing well-being, and advancing — the League will be working to order our common relations and affairs, nourishing them with the direction and guidance distilled from the effort of the trusted delegates whom we have sent and shall send of our own free choosing.

Let me close with the words of Professor Ahmad Amin, president of the congress:

'We hope to learn a lesson even from the points of weakness within us, a lesson that will make our coming congresses better than this congress.

Rumors were current, but they evaporated. They went for naught, because they are of no use; and what is of use abides in the earth.'

The Woman's Voice cannot end this word about the congress without acknowledging the efforts made by Mr. Wasif Baroudi, inspector of education, chairman of the congress's organizing committee, and Lebanon's delegate on the Cultural Committee of the League of Arab States. These efforts bore the happy fruits that everyone could feel.

Beyond all that, to Mr. Baroudi belongs most of the credit not only for proposing the idea of this cultural congress, but also for proposing that woman take part in it officially. Thus it was the first general official Arab congress to which woman was invited on an equal footing with man.

Mr. Baroudi has, further, a proposal to convene another congress no less important than the cultural one, whose aim would be to treat the problem of the Arab woman in a fundamental and comprehensive way, putting an end to the obstacles from which Arab society suffers on the road of progress and advancement.

May those responsible take this idea into consideration, and put it into effect in the very near future.