Beautiful!!

That a girl should stand before the young men of the generation!!

To say to them: I want you to be, in truth,

the grandsons of those for whom history inscribed its most beautiful pages...

They looked upon the world and illumined it...

They entered social life as builders and reformers...

No people has outstripped them on this road...

Nor will the age to come know the like of their works...

And nothing in existence works more powerfully upon a young man's life than the call of woman,

calling him to fruitful, worthwhile work...

calling him to a reasoned, conscious life...

calling him to cast off false imitation...

and to put on the garments of sincerity and duty...

And far, far more beautiful than that...

is that a young man should stand before the girls of the generation...

and say to them: I would have from among you

a Khawla bint al-Azwar...

or an Asma bint Abi Bakr al-Siddiq, "mother of the hero"...

or a Sukayna, daughter of al-Husayn the martyr...

or a Zaynab, the enchanting horsewoman, queen of Palmyra.

I want one like these women...

I want her, that I may present her to the present generation as a living model of perfection, of beauty, of life, and of idealism.

I want from among you the girl who has touched the heart—

who touches it with a kind and gentle hand.

I want from among you the girl who stands at the man's side, a support and a strong arm...

I want the girl who is a garden of spreading shade in quiet hours,

and a raging whirlwind in the life of work...

I want her a spring overflowing with vitality, energy, and wisdom.

I want her brave and strong.

I want her a mother to a generation of which the future will be proud.

I want her — and how beautiful is what I want her for —

one in whom dwell truth, frankness, faith, and steadfastness.

I want her a companion to me when calamities befall me...

lightening my pains and carrying some of my burdens...

I invited a friend of mine to spend a few days in the village,

and how quickly that friend answered my invitation.

They were beautiful days, in which that friend felt

that woman has a meaning in existence,

for she is the pillar of the house and its life, pulsing with cheer and goodness.

Great was her astonishment when she saw our peasant brothers coming home,

each of them riding a beast while his wife walked at his side, encouraging him,

smiling, sweetening his world with her tenderness and good cheer.

And that friend made me laugh a great deal when she said to me: I would love to live in the village; I would love to live at the side of a young man of knotted muscles and share life with him like these women, so that he would flood me with his affection and tenderness, and my life would have value in this generation.

Nothing shows more plainly the unfitness of woman in our age than the ordeal of Palestine.

Which girl among us has done her duty toward that dear, precious part?

In truth we women of the Arab nations are a dead weight upon our societies...

While we see Zionism carrying the "Tommy gun,"

you see us amusing ourselves, playing, busied with trifles and hollow appearances.

And despite all this you see us demanding our rights —

and what rights do we mean?!

We let husks distract us from what matters most...

We walk among the thorns barefoot,

and we walk on silk "in slippers" and "boots."

We are answerable to our homeland, our nation, and our conscience for every silliness we pursue while ignoring our duty and our very existence...