The Lebanese Arab Women's Federation
The Arab Women's Federation is made up of most of the women's associations in Lebanon, and it has been working for twenty-seven years in the cultural, social, charitable, and political fields. Its aim is to gather woman's word and unite her in work beneficial to the country, and the committees it has formed for this purpose each carry out the work entrusted to them with vigor and resolve.
The Cultural Committee
It concerns itself with the matter of girls' schools, petitions the government to increase their number, and demands the necessary reforms.
The Prisons Committee
It visits the prisons; it is the committee that worked to separate juveniles from the rest of the prisoners and to appoint a teacher to instruct them, and its demand — the creation of a reformatory for juveniles — has been realized. It concerns itself especially with women and girls, and through its efforts an educated directress was appointed to the women's prison to instruct them. It is still working for the founding of a public library in the prison, and for the organization of trade classes and various subjects, so that the prisoner's idle hours may be filled and she may learn what will benefit her and set her character straight on the day of her return to society.
The Committee for Raising the Moral Standard
It seeks out fallen women — especially the minors among them — and takes upon itself the care of them. The only refuge to which the committee resorts for help is the nuns of the Convent of the Good Shepherd.
It is still dealing with the question of organized prostitution, and demands the closing of those houses, which are a black stain on the brow of the nation.
The Health Committee
It goes about the city's streets,
markets, and alleys, and submits to the municipality its demands for whatever cleaning is required, and the municipality in turn attends to fulfilling these demands; it inspects the bakeries and gives lectures on filth and its harms.
The Political Committee
Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura
President of the Lebanese Arab Women's Federation
It pursues its demands with determination and patience, foremost among them the demand for woman's political rights. It has published numerous articles in the daily newspapers, directing the attention of man and woman alike to this usurped right.
The Palestine Committee
This committee was formed during the war, when the Zionist aggression in Palestine began, and the Federation carried out a campaign to boycott Zionist goods. Ever since the Western world decided to partition Palestine and to grant a state of Israel within it, it has struggled a commendable struggle, with the support of the ladies' association. And when the international commission charged with studying the Palestine ques
tion visited Beirut, the government included the Federation in the Lebanese delegation that conferred with the international commission.
The Child Welfare Committee
The poor child has not been deprived of the Federation's attention: it opened a home for this purpose in Karkoun al-Druze and another in Achrafieh. The committee has struggled a commendable struggle, with a zeal that knows no weariness, and it has helped working mothers by lifting from their shoulders the burden of responsibility during their absence from their children at their various occupations.
These have now become two independent associations — the Child Welfare Society and the Child Protection Society — each of which works to care for poor children (and how many they are!), and we hope that the number of women working in this field will increase.
The 'Federation', with its committees drawn from its member associations, works with patience, courage, and steadfastness in the nation's field, and it will remain persevering in its work, firm in its struggle, until the reform, progress, and welfare it seeks are achieved.
Let the women and men of Lebanon know that woman is exerting mighty efforts in the field of the homeland, and is performing social and humanitarian works necessary to the renaissance of the country, while at the same time attending to her home and her children.
We appreciate the efforts of the present president of the Federation, Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura, and of the former presidents through whose zeal and devotion the Federation has dealt with the country's social problems with resolve and steadfastness; and it will go forward until all its aims are achieved — with God's help.