Woman in History

From a lecture by Mrs. Alice Nakkash, wife of the President, Mr. Alfred Nakkash; presented by Miss Nabila Saab

Mrs. Nakkash divided her lecture into four parts. In the first part, which is historical, she showed the role woman has played in society and offered examples of famous women in the various ages, countries, and fields.

She pointed out that woman did not obtain her standing as a human being in ancient history; rather, she was treated as a small instrument, or a companion, and was not acknowledged an independent life, with rights of her own and responsibilities upon her.

Woman's role in Greek civilization was confined to amusement. The dancers and singers who had taken dancing and singing as professions would add to the beauty of the popular festivities — "Flauterb," "Terpsichore," and "Polmi" — many devoted imitators... The Greek woman strove to imitate man in the fields of poetry and literature. There is Sappho, impetuous and clamorous, writing nine books of verse; and Corinna the Boeotian, who is known to have given Pindar lessons in lyric poetry.

The Bible has handed down to us the names of certain famous Eastern women who served the public good, such as Esther, wife of Ahasuerus, who obtained pardon for the Jews whom Haman was persecuting; and Judith; and Deborah, the prophetess and Hebrew judge, who witnessed the Hebrews' victory over the Canaanites and sang of that victory, her song becoming one of the cornerstones of Hebrew literature...

In this glimpse of Mrs. Nakkash's lecture comes the following passage: "In this long enumeration let us not forget the first woman to leave a mark on the modern literature of our country, Warda al-Yaziji, who belongs to a family renowned in Arabic literature. Let us not forget, either, those women who played a political role, such as Sitt Habbous Arslan, who governed the region of Choueifat in the early nineteenth century; Sitt Umm Dyus, wife of Emir Ahmad, domineering and unbending in her opinion; and Sitt Badawiyya al-Khazen and her sister Ziyara, who governed Lebanon for a number of years."

Mrs. Nakkash closed the first part of her lecture by saying: "If history has recorded the names of guilty women, how many a woman has labored in the cause of goodness and beauty and been an honor to humanity; and more than these, how many a woman has taken part in the finest work of all, which is the making of the world. After Eve, who caused the Fall, woman gave humanity the Mother of the Savior, and thanks to her, woman has left a mark in all the fields of human activity, down through the ages of history."

The second part of the lecture examines the influence of the Lebanese woman on society. Its first section takes up social institutions in general, and in it we read: The Lebanese women's institutions are numerous, and they do honor to their founders, their presidents, and those who take part in them. Institutions are usually formed to remedy social corruption and to restore society to its vital order.

The lecture then passes to the Lebanese women's social institutions, with a brief account of the work of each association and a word about certain institutions and presidents. She devoted a kind word to the Lebanese Women's League, in which she said: "The Lebanese Women's League was founded in 1943, under the patronage of the president Mrs. Laure Khoury and the presidency of that active lady Mrs. Heneni Tarcha. The aim of this institution is to gather the women's elite into a national union to raise the social and cultural level. To achieve this aim the League employs the following four means:

1 — Publishing The Woman's Voice magazine, which carries the association's message to all the women of the neighboring countries and to the Lebanese women in the Mahjar. In 1945 it issued 1,500 copies; today it issues several times that number.

2 — Founding a club, to be called the Lebanese Women's Club; this is still under study.

3 — Carrying out the cultural plan concerning woman and child. Thus in November 1945 a children's garden in the modern style was opened, holding about 117 children. The gift of the Lebanese 'Umdah in Venezuela, a sum of $32,000, makes it possible to face the idea of creating a children's garden on a wider scale and of a more modern pattern.

4 — Enlightening and guiding public opinion, and gathering the various elites in monthly meetings whose program always includes an educational talk.

Besides all this, the Lebanese Women's League gives every year a party stamped with the spirit of the institution, made up of dances, songs, and theatrical pieces, all drawn from Lebanese life."

The lecturer expressed the hope that the Lebanese Women's League would be able to reach its essential goal.

She then passed to the field of social service, saying: With all this, this social work is not enough; it must be completed by true social service. It is not enough to lament the invasion of communism among certain poor or impoverished classes of the people; resentments must be forestalled, and misery forestalled and lightened, by attacking evil at its roots. This earnest effort against the causes of misery and ignorance demands determined, bitter, and organized endeavors, and a scientific preparation, theoretical and practical. It demands philosophical, economic, legal, and moral knowledge; and it presupposes, in the woman who undertakes it, a nature founded upon charity and piety, whose duty toward our modern society is to introduce into it the idea of right and of love.

Mrs. Nakkash mentioned the institutions now existing in Beirut for the teaching of social service, and addressed an appeal to the government and the people to profit from the knowledge of the graduates of these schools, by employing them and urging them to work in the city and the suburb.

In the last part of the lecture, which takes up woman's political rights, she said that

she who organizes the home is capable of being an organizer in the city, which is nothing but a spacious house. And she spoke of the good influence woman can exert in all social questions, such as the care of the child, health, public relief, the beautification of the city, and others.

Mrs. Nakkash ended by saying: "No work in which woman has no part is complete."