Intellectual Activity Among Women

The Woman's Voice continues this section, on intellectual activity among women, presenting each month a select group of the ladies and misses who speak on Radio Lebanon.

In presenting these talks and commenting upon them, we aim above all to assist the public on the one hand, and the radio on the other — for the good of the radio and the public...

In this talk of hers, Miss Ghantous took up the work being done by the "Children's Welfare Society," and set forth its aims, its founding, and the works it carries out. She then drew attention to the duty resting upon the shoulders of mothers.

There is no doubt that the subject of the child is a sensitive subject in the highest degree; to this day we neglect these blessed saplings which, were they granted someone to care for them, would spring up in the face of life as trees all goodness, in which earth and heaven would rejoice.

Whatever may be said of the child, whatever may be written of him, whatever care may be given him, he still stands in need of writing, and speech, and care.

Miss Ghantous's style is good, though it lacks suppleness in certain passages; her language is fine, and her voice is one of the "microphonic" voices, if the expression is permissible.

I do not recall having heard Mrs. al-Baaini before today on Radio Lebanon, nor do I recall having read anything by her before her latest piece, "Morality Is Strength."

From her style it appears that Mrs. al-Baaini has practiced the craft of writing before today: there is a certain vigor in her style, and her language is sound, with health and soundness in it.

As for her voice, it did not rise to the height her language reached; we sensed in it a roughness that may not be natural to it — perhaps a hoarseness from some passing accident.

As for her subject, "Morality Is Strength," its title suggests it is classical — and by classical we mean well-trodden, for the men and women who have spoken about morality are many indeed. Yet the manner in which Mrs. al-Baaini treated her subject holds much that is new and fresh, and the views she offered on morality are views of understanding and breadth of horizon.

... And Miss Ghulmiyya we hear for the first time on the radio, though before today we have read some of her social and literary articles in the magazine The Woman's Voice.

Indeed, we do not recall having read from her a piece in such sound language and with such excellent expression: in her style there is vigor and power of expression, and much literary grace.

With this subject of hers, "Woman the Human Being in the Charter of Human Rights," she was among the strongest speakers of the latter half of last month.

The reader will find it in this magazine. Her voice is not bad, but it needs training.

There is no doubt that Mrs. Widad Dabbagh aimed, in her talk "Sincerity of Resolve," at directing a national message to the Arab world in this ordeal through which it is passing today, an ordeal that threatens its very existence. The example the good lady offered was that of the Emir Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil, who founded the Umayyad kingdom in Andalusia by the sincerity of his resolve, his steadfastness, and the loftiness of his aims, when he understood that despair does not bring back plundered wealth or a heritage ground to dust. And although this example, we say, has many like it in life, we think the writer singled out this Abd al-Rahman because he represents, for the Arabs of today, the struggle of a homeless, hunted man whom a passing circumstance — one with ample room in it for despair — could not keep from attaining the highest ranks, since the Umayyad emir met it with a great heart and a will of iron.

Mrs. Dabbagh ends with these words: "Nations, like individuals, are exposed to trials, and their fortune lies in the scale of the fates; if weakness and disintegration appear among their sons, then it is farewell to them."

The title of the talk is not attractive — and the title matters greatly to the listener, for it is what binds him for a quarter of an hour to the radio set, listening... But the lecturer delivered her talk with much charm: her style is good, her language likewise, and her voice is fine.

A subtle subject, not indicated by its title, but in truth one of those subjects our ladies have not dared approach until today. In it the writer Ayoub took up thought in literature, and the work of "the word" in bringing out this thought; and she concluded from this by saying that the word is incapable of bringing out the idea in its true reality. She defined literature as that which is creative and original, strong and beautiful in its expression and its views; and it is this originality, this strength, and this beauty of expression and views that distinguish one writer from

another, and one poet from another.
And Mrs. Zaheya Ayoub asks about woman's share in literature, saying that woman confined herself to poetry in olden times, and that today we cannot bestow this title except upon a very small group.
As for Mrs. Zaheya's language, it is very sound; her style is excellent and her voice is good; in this respect she stands in the front rank of the speakers — in language, style, voice, and thought.
Yet we hold it against Mrs. Ayoub — while acknowledging the soundness of most of the views she gave on literature — as we hold it against most of our ladies on the radio — that she took up a subject requiring composure and depth, and the woman listening to the radio cannot take in everything in it as if she were reading it in a book or a magazine...

This is a light, merry subject, as they say... like light music and light literature — and that is a quality which, in the opinion of this page's critic, is highly praiseworthy in radio subjects.
Or say, rather, that its title gives it this quality; for hardly had we begun to listen than we saw Miss Mardini going far afield in search of the origins of personality, attempting to define it — its formation, its qualifications, its effect upon environment and the environment's effect upon it. So the first part of the talk came out dry — though it may be that the nature of the inquiry is what called for the dryness. But the second part was beautiful, and in harmony with the basic idea of the subject, above all when the young lady declared that beauty and elegance do not play the greatest role in a woman's life, because intelligence and vitality, courage and tolerance, kindness and modesty, a spirit of gaiety and freedom from affectation, and culture all have their effect

in the forming of a woman's personality. The Miss's language needs practice; her style is good, and her voice is not bad.

General Remarks

• Most of the speakers were new to the public, if we except Mrs. Zaheya Ayoub.
• Among the speakers to whom we have not referred in this issue: Widad Maqdisi Cortas, whose subject was "The Greatest Ordeal Lebanon Has Known";
Miss Rose Ghorayeb: "Are Our Women in Earnest in Demanding Their Rights?"
• The talks were, in their majority, beyond the reach of the public — and the radio is an instrument of general culture...
• We note that what is presented after the talk, in the last five minutes, does not accord with the subject and has no relation whatever to the talk.
• We suggest to the radio that it vary the woman's program, so that every lady and girl may find in it pleasure and profit.