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 them
selves: 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 concentra
tion; 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 following are the names of the women participants from Egypt:
The lady wife of Ismail Bey al-Qabbani, head of the Egyptian delegation; the ladies the wives of Ibrahim al-Yusri, Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, William Sim'an, Ali al-Jarim, Jirjis Hajjar, Adil Yusuf, and Amin Badran; Mrs. Aziza Iskandar Hilmi; the Misses Atiyyat Hilmi, Mubaraka Sayyid Muhammad, and Hamida Midi.
* And these are the names of the women participants from Syria:
The ladies the wives of Nizar Qabbani, Tal'at Khalid Hasan, Sati' al-Husri, and Zafir al-Baqi; the Misses Farihan al-Husseini, Jihan al-Mawsili, Afifa al-Husseini, Balqis Kurd Ali, Inayat Ramzi al-Kals,
Kawthar Salloum, Badi'a al-Urfali, Ni'mat Diab, Marzuba al-Quwatli, Ma'alla Safar, Amina Farhat, Nahida Tawil, Zahida Ibrahim Pasha, Inan Munaymina, and Maqbula al-Shalaq al-Malih; Sister Sixtine (of Baniyas) and Sister Christine (of Latakia).
* And these are the names of the women participants from Iraq:
The ladies the wives of Ibrahim Shawkat, Munir al-Qadi, and Sa'id Fahim; and the Misses Salwa al-Husri, Bahija al-Qattan, Julie Mitri al-Hajj, Muhiba Barbari, and Linda Azar Karam.
* And these are the names of the women participants from Palestine:
The ladies the wives of Wasfi Anabtawi, Ishaq Musa al-Husseini, Ahmad Khalifa, and Musa Nasser; and Miss Nabiha Nasser.
* As for the participants from Lebanon, they are — apart from the three members of the official delegation:
Mrs. Renée, wife of Dr. Elias al-Khoury; Mrs. Mathilde Hayek; Mrs. Zahia Salman; the Misses Zahia Kaddoura, Wadia Kaddoura, Zahiyah Dughan, In'am al-Saghir, Amira Osseiran, Lawahiz Masika, Ihsan Mahmasani, and Nadiyya Ghandour; Sister Marie Casavia, Sister Marie Ignace, and Sister Marie Emile; Rafiqah Dughan, Amina Nu'mani, Afaf Makkawi, Nazik Ramadan, and Idis Mazhar.
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.