The Woman's Word

Woman often complains, saying: "Man does not understand woman." Most women, and some men, agree with her in this, and she attributes most of her domestic problems to this cause. There are many who read this magazine of ours intending to become acquainted with woman, and they do not succeed. In publishing this magazine we aim to solve this riddle and to remove the misunderstanding between us and man, and we shall continue the endeavor, and continue it again; the solution will be the outcome of what we publish and of the encouragement we meet with from our gracious lady readers and from our discerning readers who are jealous for the good of this great Arab homeland.

"Man does not understand woman" because woman has not yet understood herself. She flounders among the waves of currents — what others have attained in different circles — and what holds good in one circle does not hold good in another; and so she makes the problem still more complicated.

Her contribution to a magazine such as this is only in the hope of realizing her wish, for in its realization lies the realization of woman's complete personality. But, my sister reader, let men see with their own eyes and think for themselves, without our imposing upon them the thinking we ourselves want. If they think by their own logic, the result will be more lasting and more assured for us.

Let the woman's voice resound first within woman herself, that it may make her understand her personality, her standing, and her possibilities; let it educate her in the subjects whose knowledge was denied her in her father's house, and whose understanding family life denied her in her husband's house. Let us understand what is new around us in science and in the world's different societies; give us an opportunity to read what the women leaders of thought, and its men leaders, are spreading abroad in the new renaissance; tell us of the national duty and how to perform it. Explain the facts to us from their root, and instead of our meeting the question of the Palestinian refugee sister with indifference or with weeping, let us step up to her with confidence and courage, saying: "Cease weeping — were men created for anything but to die for freedom and honor? And can comfort and dignity be sweet to you while dignity's brow lies in the dust? How precious are homelessness and hunger, if hunger and homelessness spur our men to defend our dignity and our glory." Let us know all this, and let us understand what is new about the kitchen, art, home medicine, and child-rearing; then afterward you will see from us deeds whose ring will resound in ears and in living consciences.

This is our aim in "The Woman's Voice": the woman's voice will resound within woman before man hears it, and after that we shall meet him on one level, and each of us will understand the other with a true understanding. And until our appointed meeting, this new committee begs of you, its sisters in the struggle, to extend to it a helping hand, taking note of the new sections and contributing to their enrichment and renewal with sound suggestions.

Nabila Rawda Najjar