Mayy and Woman

"Words and Signals" is a collection of speeches by Mayy, delivered on various occasions — a collection unique of its kind for the beauty of its style and its far-reaching aims; in it are revealed depth of inquiry and soundness of judgment.. Mayy's writing, taken as a whole, was a means of spreading goodness, truth, and virtue. In this collection is a speech she delivered at the Eastern Club in Cairo in 1912 on "Woman," in which her breadth of reading and her literary boldness — a boldness that compels admiration — are revealed to us. She refutes and criticizes the sayings of writers and philosophers — the likes of Voltaire, Plato, and Bossuet — who mocked woman and claimed she was fit only for domestic service and bodily adornment — and who said that she has no mind — and that learning destroys her faculties. She mounts a fierce campaign against these men, demonstrating that the backwardness of half of humanity is due to woman's ignorance — and that there is no happiness for humanity except through her happiness.

And here is her reply to Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, who said: Woman was created from a superfluous rib in man's side; for this reason she is barren, with no intelligence in her mind and no understanding in her soul.

Mayy answers him:

"God's mercy upon you, Bossuet! You were not very astute! As for woman's being created from man's rib, that is a matter on which I have no opinion — except that I should prefer her to be created from the essence of his heart and his affections rather than to be a shapen 'cutlet.' And as for the rib's being superfluous, that is a debatable question; in any case I do not take it upon myself to establish this anatomical — or un-anatomical — question."

And although she holds that disparity among the social classes is necessary, she believes in the necessity of woman's equality with man in all the fields of life.

She is intensely optimistic about woman's possibilities, strong in her faith in the women's renaissance and in the new woman, the repository of the future's hopes; and she holds that woman's marvelous renaissance heralds great good. Among her sayings: "The lame civilization of yesterday, which leaned upon only one of the two sexes, is other than the civilization of tomorrow, blessed with the fulfillment of hopes; for it is not the civilization of man alone, but the civilization of humanity."

And while we see her crying out to people, "Trust in woman's essence; trust the daughter of today and you will find the sons of tomorrow worthy of trust," we see her counseling women to hold fast to high morals and essential qualities, keeping far from vulgarity and ostentatious display, so that they may be in the right when defending their rights to freedom and to equality with man. At the end of her speech, after supporting her views with crushing arguments and shining proofs, we see her addressing man with an unaccustomed frankness, in words that are lawful magic, entering the ears without asking leave, because they issue from a heart filled with faith.

"I speak now with burning anguish, as though I were the voice of woman, silent for generations; and you listen to me with compassion, as though you were the soul of man, scattered since the beginning of the ages — the great dispersed soul gathering its strength to listen; and the trembling voice, which had known only the whisper of obedience and the murmur of obscure rebellion, rises now, coming from afar, from the depths of the black ages, crying: O man, you abased me, and so you yourself were abject; free me, that you may be free; free me, that you may free humanity."

And how proud she was when she was invited to ceremonies in her honor and given occasion to speak — not because she loved grandeur and display, but because honoring her meant esteem for the dignity of the Arab woman in general, and encouragement to her to rise and march forward. Thus her words at the "Green Hut" gathering, the ceremony held in celebration of her:

"Did I know that this celebration was for me alone, in myself, shame would hold the word of thanks upon my lips; but I know that the aim of this tribute is too far-reaching to be confined to one girl, and too great to be directed to an individual. Its aim is the encouragement of the Eastern girl in general, to whom you say, in my person, that there is in the East a new spirit demanding its renaissance, and that your eyes watch over it and your hearts tend it, to supply it with what strength and encouragement may be. Therefore I find myself at this hour filled with a dignity and a consequence I have never felt before."

And in her address "Tears," delivered in 1919 at the meeting held in Egypt to found the "Refuge of Freedom," she records her admiration for the men of Egypt who opened to her the field of speech — as if by that they were raising woman's station.

"Now that man has grown great and risen high, he has set me in my place, letting my voice mount freely and prevail, compelling and effective — not because it is the voice of a girl, but because it is the voice of the completing human individual."

And what can the pen write of this singular personality and this blazing genius?

And who is more fit than "The Woman's Voice" to commemorate her who raised her voice — that voice whose echo still rings in our ears.

The special Mayy issue is nothing other than a tribute to the dignity of the Arab woman in the person of Mayy. The daughters of the Arabs, for all the variety of their creeds and the difference of their homelands, will remember with great admiration the works of her who raised their standing.