The Young Muslim Women's Institute and Club

In the course of the year 1368 of the Hegira, 1948 of the Christian era, a new name was added to the names of the women's associations in Beirut — the name of a new association: "the Young Muslim Women's Association."

This association was founded by an elite of the capital's ladies who labor in the field of the homeland and of humanity, volunteers in the arena of society, working to raise the status of woman and to advance her.

This association looked into woman's social ills and prescribed for them the remedy possible for their cure; it has tried, with all the material and moral strength at its command, to spare her deficiency and to keep her far from the factors that lower her standing and her position. To that end it formed committees to devise the most effective means and the easiest ways by which woman can bring out her personality, and it adopted aims and objects which it made its motto. The most important of these aims:

To raise woman's social and cultural level and to fight illiteracy and idleness; to realize the refining ideals that promote human love and the doing of good; and then to equip the girl with the various branches of knowledge that qualify her to be the model woman of a virtuous society.

To realize those aims, it opened for her an institute in which she receives every kind of knowledge she will need in her future, whether she becomes a housewife or volunteers to work in the service of her homeland and to secure her living. Among the subjects she studies at this club are: religious lessons, music, nursing, sewing, embroidery, drawing and painting, and household management — all of which she studies at the hands of a company of eminent physicians and respected women and men teachers.

This association works as far as it can to spread the spirit of fraternity and equality in its club, so much so that a woman entering it for the first time feels the spirit of affection and love that envelops it and spreads among its members.

Among the association's aims is to spread the spirit of acquaintance and of social life among Arab girls; to that end it holds a reception day every month for all its members, for acquaintance and understanding, in a gentle, quiet atmosphere tinged with the spirit of intimacy and love, and caressed by the sweet musical strains played at this gathering.

These gatherings have given rise to the formation of several committees drawn from among the assembled members, among them the guidance committee, whose task is to raise the moral and social level; the culture committee, whose task is to fight illiteracy and organize lectures; the girl guides committee; the social affairs committee; and others.

The affairs of this association are directed by its great counselor, Dr. Mustafa al-Khalidi, an old campaigner in the field of humanity, who works in this association with a determination that knows neither weariness nor tedium; he is constantly at the side of its administrative committee, keeping himself informed of its affairs and its works. This administrative committee is made up of 23 women members. The association has an honorary president, Dr. Saniyya Habboub.

As for membership in the association, every lady, whatever her community or her nationality, has the right to it, upon her acceptance and the payment of the prescribed fees: the admission fee, which is one lira, and the subscription fee, which is half a lira a month. The number of women enrolled in this association has so far reached one thousand.

As for the association's funds, they are gathered from the admission and subscription fees, from the proceeds of charitable projects and entertainments, and from the fees and charges the association collects in return for the services it renders.

This association will have numerous branches in the Arab cities; its branch in Tripoli will open soon, and this branch will be directed by a company of Tripoli's capable ladies.

It is worth mentioning that material matters do not affect this association's ambitions or weaken its determination; rather it works always and forever to accomplish its endeavors and to steady its steps, relying in this on God first, and on the supporters of virtue and the workers in the field of humanity and the homeland second.

Hikmat al-Qadiri
Secretary of the Association and Writer of Its Correspondence