The Women's Renaissance Battles the Genies of Jabal Amel's Treasures

If you asked any Amr among men for a definition of the word "treasure," his answer would most likely be that a treasure is a hoarded collection of rare precious stones or costly metal, found buried in the bowels of the earth or lost in remote corners of the universe, arduous of approach and hard to attain.

Imagination may well have its share in the thinking of this Amr of ours, carrying you from this comprehensive definition to what may have escaped your knowledge: that treasures have genies of the jinn to guard them, that their secrets are held hostage to certain charms or talismans, and that... and that...

All things his thinking may lack in scientific rigor, without being robbed thereby of the splendor of imagination and the sweetness of legend.

And were I to contest this Amr in his definition, I would tell him that treasures are not obliged to lie buried beneath the layers of the soil, or lost in some unknown reaches of this vast universe. How many a spot on earth, abounding in bounties, do we pass by without perceiving what we might reap from it with a little labor and toil! And how many sources of good in the minerals, plants, and living things around us are we kept from by our greed for the mirage of this worldly life — that mirage which never ceases to draw us toward it until it brings us to a deep abyss where, had our friend Amr come to it in pursuit of his treasure, he would have found nothing but pitch darkness, the darkness of the grave, and a bitter cold, the cold of the end at which every striving and every headlong rush must halt...

And were we to search this trusty land for some of those hidden treasures of which we speak, we would find one of them the size of a tremendous mountain, crouching like a mighty lion fettered in iron, keeping to its place and gazing at the horizon with a look of anguish and regret... That mountain is Mount "Amel," which we might more truthfully name the wretched mountain, or the deprived mountain...

It is not for me to expatiate upon the injustice and iniquity of which this dear part of the homeland complains; to prove it I need only call upon whoever has two eyes to look with those two eyes, for what is to be seen there of the varieties of misery and deprivation is many times more than any description or account could contain.

What I aim at in this place, rather, is to speak of the noble services rendered by a group of our most excellent women who make up "Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah." They have striven, in a manner deserving of thanks, with all the means and resources at their command, to serve that suffering Ameli portion of this dear homeland. In some of its villages they have founded a chain of schools for the instruction and upbringing of young girls, thereby achieving a new and blessed step toward finding the "charm" that can destroy another of the genies — the genies of ignorance and misery who stand as a stumbling block in the way of Jabal Amel's opening to the light, and of its sharing in the service of the country with its treasures, which are doubtless many, and abounding in good for whoever takes the trouble to search for them.

I was lately given the opportunity to join the revered president of the "Nahda," Mrs. Evelyne Bustros, and its excellent members — Mrs. Heneni Tarcha, Mrs. Adelaide Rishani, Mrs. Asma Issa, and Mrs. Janette Tadros — on one of their tours of inspection in the villages of Jabal Amel, and I saw such signs of those excellent ladies' success as delight the eye of everyone who loves this homeland and serves it faithfully.

Wonder took hold of me when I saw the dignified Mrs. Evelyne Bustros and her excellent companions endure, for long hours, every kind of hardship in traveling roads whose stones outnumber their dust, and whose ruts outnumber both stones and dust together. The excellent president did well in directing the conversation during this arduous journey: she chose Palestine, and spoke of it to us with overflowing feeling and sweeping patriotism, before which every trace of the journey's hardships vanished — the stones of the road and its ruts put to shame — while the banner of wounded Palestine, and the banner of vengeance for dear Jabal Amel against the genies of ignorance and wretchedness, fluttered smiling in the air.

In an out-of-the-way place beyond Hasbaya, in the quiet village of "Mimess," certain eyes beheld for the first time in their lives pictures moving in the darkness, cast by machines that had been carried to Mimess in a silver-colored automobile accompanying the car of the ladies of the "Nahda."

The people of Mimess greatly admired the practical counsels those beautiful moving pictures brought them, meant to guide them toward what is best for them in the care of their health and in their work at home, on the farm, and in the field. And the girls of the school of

Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah at Mimess spared no means of expressing the sincere affection each of them holds for the ladies of the Nahda, showering them with bouquets of cheers and songs whose loveliest quality was the innate purity of the hearts from which they came. Nor was the program to stop there: the ladies of the Nahda had hidden away a lovely surprise for those little girls, distributing to each of them a new pinafore (a gift from the Lebanese Red Cross), and that was the crowning touch for those pure souls.

At "Taybeh," which we reached after traveling a long distance along the Palestinian frontier, sights awaited us no less splendid than what we had seen at Mimess. We saw, with some astonishment and rather more delight, that the girls of the "Nahda" school there are adorned not only by a superlative mastery of their lessons, but also by an elegance and a cleanliness plainly visible in their dress.

The interest of the people of Taybeh in the moving-picture film was no less than that of the people of Mimess, nor were the Nahda girls there any less ardent than their fellows at Mimess in showing the tokens of their gratitude; to the cheers and songs they added ringing speeches, beautiful for all their artlessness.

Our journey ended at "Kfarman," that village for which wisdom has provided a generous house of lofty pillars, which "adorns" it and labors faithfully for all that is good for its people, thereby lightening for workers like the ladies of the "Nahda" the toils of their honorable task.

And so another of the "Nahda's" days passed in the unceasing struggle toward the common good; and with it this devoted handful of ladies completed a new stage in the war against the genies of ignorance and misery.

It is among the prides and glories of the Lebanese woman that in this small country she performs great humanitarian works. It is enough for the woman of Lebanon that she is a hand moist with fragrant balms, whose tender perfumes flood the eye and the heart. In this country the Lebanese woman performs the noblest that a generous, bountiful hand can perform. A heart withered upon its wounds grows green again in woman's tenderness!

A mournful, trembling eye, haunted by phantoms of deep-buried pain — the hand of woman wipes it with a ray of light...

And these little girls in the Mar Elias Orphanage — which the noble lady Mrs. Hortense Tamer oversees and nourishes from her tenderness and her means — it is in truth a small paradise, beautiful and trim, in which these tender wings flutter sweetly, gently, happily... How lovely they are, smiling at life as though life entire were theirs;

At Christmas this orphanage held its Christmas celebration, attended by a gathering of the gracious ladies of this country. Mrs. Linda, wife of Dr. Georges Hayek and one of the members of the society, delivered a speech in which she praised the efforts of Mrs. Hortense Tamer and her devotion to this orphanage, which it is hoped will take in a large number of girls in the near future. The soul of the great poet and platform orator Dr. Nicolas Fayyad was stirred, and he delivered a splendid address befitting the occasion. He was followed by Archimandrite Touma Dibo al-Maalouf, and the final word belonged to His Grace Bishop Elia Karam, who represented His Grace Bishop Salibi at the celebration. Bishop Karam donated a beautiful summer resort for the girls of the institute.

Mr. Najib Elias Haddad donated the sum of 250 Lebanese liras, and donations were also made by Messrs. Fouad Mufarrij, Qaysar Mufarrij, Antoine Saad, and Tawfiq Farah.

After the celebration Mrs. Tamer, the president of the orphanage, took the company on a tour of the institute's departments; they admired its order and cleanliness, and left full of praise for the generous hand that spends money so liberally for the sake of these little girls.