In Society

The Woman's Voice announces that it publishes in these pages only such news as its subjects themselves furnish to it; and if some should notice omissions touching certain sides of social activity, it is because The Woman's Voice does not wish to publish news not furnished to it by those concerned...

• Mr. Emile Bustani, one of the owners of the Contracting and Trading Company, has returned from a journey to England lasting more than two months, in the course of which he was in contact with the oil kings and with English men of politics and business. On this delightful journey he was accompanied by his estimable wife, Mrs. Laurice Bustani. Nor were her efforts without a noble patriotic aim — the more so as the two of them stand in the front rank of our zealous young people.

In a conversation with the editorial secretary, Mrs. Bustani expressed her intense admiration for the Englishwoman. Among what she said:

'There are things for which I have come to respect the Englishwoman. Chief among them is her fortitude in the face of rationing and the food shortage which still weighs upon the country; the Englishwoman accepts these with an open heart, and rarely did I hear one complain or grumble!

— The Englishwoman manages the affairs of her house without any shortcoming, and come evening there she is, perfectly groomed, ready to accompany her husband and to enjoy social life according to her own inclination.

— The practical life the Englishwoman leads gives her breadth of knowledge and confidence in herself; in her general information she keeps pace with her brother man. The Lebanese woman, on the other hand, once she marries, lets her knowledge dwindle and contents herself with living within the compass of the house; her reading of books and magazines grows scant, and before long her husband has outstripped her by a long stretch...'

Mrs. Bustani believes that the Lebanese woman surpasses the Englishwoman in intelligence and quickness of mind, and is not her inferior in culture; what she lacks is perseverance and steadiness in widening the horizon of her life.

• Woman in Lebanon still gives deprived childhood the fullest share of her activity. Among the most notable signs of this is the Child Welfare Society, housed in the Islamic Orphanage in Beirut.

This society was founded three years ago, and its first president was Mrs. Ihsan Rashid Beyhum. During the past month Mrs. Beyhum's presidency came to an end, and Mrs. Ni'mat Baydun Qaranful was elected to the post.

The aim of the Child Welfare Society, as appears from its name, is care for the child's health and attention to his person and his feeding. Children in straitened circumstances from the Horsh quarter frequent the center, where they receive medical examination from volunteer physicians and the price of their medicine is paid for them; parties are held for them, and clothing and foodstuffs are distributed to them at special seasons.

The truth is that this society of noble purpose, whose members number no more than forty ladies, has filled a great void in a district far from the heart of the capital — where medical examination is now all but assured to every poor child.

In a conversation with the society's president, Mrs. Ni'mat Qaranful, she said: the number of children treated at the Child Welfare Society in 1949 reached twelve thousand children.

Mrs. Qaranful explained that these expenses are met from members' subscriptions, the proceeds of parties, and the donations of the charitable. She made special mention of Mrs. Faiza al-Solh, wife of His Excellency the Prime Minister, who constantly extends to the society her material and moral sympathy.

And Mrs. Qaranful, as president of this society, strives with all energy and activity to perform her duty in the fullest manner.

She works, besides all this, in a number of women's societies in Beirut, and believes in woman's competence and her worthiness to obtain her political rights in full — without her house and her family suffering any neglect.

• The Society for the Protection of Lebanese Children, attached to the Lebanese Red Cross, invited the Beirut public to attend the ceremony opening its third house — on Hamra Street — held under the patronage of His Excellency Riad Bey al-Solh, the Prime Minister. The public warmly answered the invitation of this society, which continues to perform works for which it deserves praise, for the protection of childhood; every year, despite the youth of its age, it opens a new branch in one of the quarters of Beirut...

At the close of the ceremony, gifts and presents were distributed to the children — for the greatest of humane projects is the one that creates out of nothing a generation of happy, healthy children.

• The Women's Charitable Society of Tripoli held a grand literary evening at the Empire Cinema on January 22.

The society's president, the energetic Mrs. Iqbal Izz al-Din Zoq, welcomed the audience, touching on the society's history and on the high ideal it strives to fulfill, and thanked His Excellency Dr. Rashid Abillama for the splendid address he was so kind as to deliver at the gathering.

The program of the evening was varied, containing matter to the taste of the Tripoli public — I mean the artistic side, which was fed by the popular poet Omar al-Zi'inni, who holds a favored place in the hearts of the people of Tripoli.

The cold wave that swept Beirut was harsh and severe; the city has not known a harsher one for a long age... And to make matters worse, the means of heating are all but nonexistent — which caused influenza and bronchial colds to spread on a wide scale.

• 'Patience Is the Key to Relief' was the subject of the play performed by the members of the Beirut center of the Orthodox Youth Movement on the stage of the Zahrat al-Ihsan school.

The play was written and directed by the woman of letters Mrs. Asma Tubi — that distinguished feminine personality who spends much of her time, and devotes her pen and her mind, to the service of literature and of quiet humanitarian works.

Attendance at the play was tremendous, and the acting was the height of perfection; the young ladies performed their parts with a skill in no way inferior to that of the professionals of this art.

Between the acts came songs and musical numbers, and the play met with such success and appreciation as to set the ladies in charge of it thinking of staging it again.

• The Mar Elias Orphanage held its traditional annual party, which it is accustomed to hold at the opening of each year.

The party gathered an elite of refined Beirut society, come to look upon this tender bouquet of children and to listen to their sweet voices.

As for this Mar Elias Orphanage, its age does not exceed three years. It was founded by the refined lady Mrs. Hortense Tamer, wife of Mr. Philippe Tamer, and she still looks in upon it and spends upon it with generosity.

The orphanage takes in some forty children, who are supervised, reared, and instructed by a directress and two teachers.

And it was a gracious gesture when, at the end of the party, the children presented to the orphanage's foundress and its president, Mrs. Tamer, a photographic portrait of her person, in acknowledgment of her kindness and her sacrifices.

A group of the girls performed a charming play which showed their command, for all their young years, of the dramatic art, and their care for the Arabic language.

Credit for this care goes to the orphanage's energetic directress, Miss Ramza Karaoghlan, and to the orphanage's president, who oversees in person every task, great and small.

● Last month the 'Our Lady of Deliverance Workshop' held its ceremony for the distribution of clothing to the poor, under the supervision of the First Lady of Lebanon, Mrs. Laure Khoury, the workshop's honorary president.

The First Lady delegated the wife of Dr. Elias Khoury, sending with her a gift for the Clothing-the-Poor project, and she praised the zeal of the ladies conducting this noble undertaking.

This generous sentiment moved the members of the society, and they offered their profound thanks to the First Lady for her gift, and to the wife of His Excellency Dr. Khoury for her supervision of the distribution.

● In the last days of last month, the Committee for the Entertainment of the Young, an offshoot of the Lebanese Society for Public Health, surprised us with the first fruits of its work on a grand scale, holding its first party for the entertainment of the young on the stage of West Hall at the American University of Beirut.

The program — apart from four talking motion pictures interspersed through it at various intervals — comprised songs, dances, and playlets. A troop of Cub Scouts from the elementary school of the American University saw to the keeping of order at the party and the seating of the guests.

After a group of pupils from the Children's House of the Makassed Charitable Society sang the national anthem, Rabi' Fouad Suleiman of the elementary school of the American University gracefully told the story of 'Puss in Boots.' The Misses Majzoub of the Young Muslim Women's Club danced the sailor's dance and the dance of love with all grace. Then a group of little ones from the kindergarten of the Lebanese Women's League sang the songs of the season — varied songs, admirably sung. Then a team of pupils from the Ras Beirut Evangelical School skillfully sang two dramatic songs. Layla Dinni and Joseph Torossian each played the piano with an ability that commanded the closest attention. The party closed with the playlet 'We Killed the Snake,' performed with notable skill by two pupils of the Children's House, and bags of sweets were distributed to everyone.

To Mr. Hibri and his wife our warmest congratulations on their arrival to see family and homeland...

• There passed into the mercy of God, in Beirut, the virtuous lady and tender mother Zubayda Khallat Nahhas, mother of the Honorable Minister Plenipotentiary Mr. Adib Nahhas.

A crowded funeral was held for her in Beirut, in which the great and the notable walked; prayers were said over the pure remains in the Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, and after the service the remains were borne to Tripoli, where they were laid in the family tomb.

The Woman's Voice extends its sympathy to the Nahhas family and the Khallat family, above all the deceased's honored sons, headed by the Honorable Mr. Adib, asking God to enfold the departed in His mercy.

• Mrs. Lelly Saad and Miss Venus Saad, daughters of the Reverend Tanios Saad, paid a visit to The Woman's Voice magazine. Mrs. Lelly Saad, who returned to the homeland from São Paulo, Brazil, at the beginning of last summer, spoke engagingly of the Lebanese and Syrian colony in Brazil and of the efforts women there devote to humanitarian projects. Chief among these projects are the White Hand Society, whose object is a home for the aged, founded in 1912; the Syrian Sanatorium Society for the service of consumptives, founded in 1920; the Young Ladies' Society, founded in 1925; and the Orthodox Women's Union Society, founded in 1927.

It is worth mentioning that the Lebanese and Syrian ladies work in Brazil side by side; the spirit there, in women's circles, is finer than it is here.

Mrs. Saad spoke in an atmosphere of affection and calm; she and her sister Miss Venus are among the most loyal champions of The Woman's Voice magazine, and the most ardent on its behalf.

• Women's circles have welcomed the lady wife of the Honorable Minister Plenipotentiary Mr. Youssef al-Sawda, on the occasion of her coming to Lebanon.

And The Woman's Voice, as it welcomes Mrs. al-Sawda, wishes her the pleasantest of stays in the Lebanese land...

• Mr. Said Hibri, one of the senior officials of the Lebanese Legation in Argentina, has returned from there on leave, with his lady wife, after three years of unbroken service...

• Last month the students' committee at the American College for Girls invited the men of the press to a discussion of the subject of woman's political rights.

At the appointed time a large number of journalists answered the invitation of this students' committee at the American College, to listen to the demands of the educated, awakened young woman. Certain of the men of the press and of letters gave proof of their complete understanding of this weighty question, and promised that their papers would lend their support to raising the woman's voice high and honored, until she attains her rights.