The General Arab Women's Conference

If conferences had no merit and no aim beyond binding the ties of the sons of sister countries, uniting the word of loyal brothers, and acquainting the peoples of lands far apart yet near of kin, the hospitable country would still be the happiest of countries and the finest of Kaabas. And the Kaaba of the Arab world these days is proud Lebanon, to which its brothers from the sister Arab lands, and its emigrant sons from the Old World and the New, are making their pilgrimage to attend the various conferences convened on its hills. And among those it gathers beneath its sky, upon its knolls, and in its heart are a choice elite and roses of sweet fragrance — those excellent ladies who came together to do a common work for the good of the Arab woman and the uniting of her word and her efforts. Such was this meeting of theirs, convened at the call of the bureau of the General Arab Women's Union, which comprises the women's unions of the participating Arab countries, namely: Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon.

Here, before recounting what took place at this general meeting, we must mention its founder and the originator of its idea, the noble departed Huda Shaarawi, who called for the first general Arab women's conference in 1944; it convened at the Opera House in Cairo on December 12, under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen of Egypt and in the presence of a delegate of Her Majesty. It was attended by the delegates of the Arab women's unions and by certain other Arab women's organizations; it was likewise graced by the president of the association of the women of India and the president of the International Women's Union, and by certain women leaders of the United States of America and many organizations, leaders, and women leaders in the sister Arab lands. The second conference convened in Beirut last year, and Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura was elected president of the General Arab Women's Union.

As for the general program laid down for this meeting, it was:

1 - To draw up a unified program directing women's work toward the desired goal.

2 - To support all organizations striving to obtain woman's rights in the Arab countries, and to create a permanent link among the said organizations.

3 - To back the organizations working for motherhood and childhood in the Arab countries.

4 - To strive to bring about understanding, to spread peace, and to strengthen fraternal relations among the peoples of the Arab states.

5 - To strive for cultural, economic, and social cooperation among the Arab states in a spirit of true brotherhood.

6 - To publish a general annual bulletin showing the activity of women and of the unions in the Arab lands.

Each delegate presented a report on the work and activity of the women's union in her country. We shall give a summary of each of these reports, so that woman may acquaint herself with the activity of her sister in the other lands.

Syria

The head of the Syrian delegation was the excellent Mrs. Adila Bayhum al-Jazairi. Her address was read on her behalf by Mrs. Adwiyya Tabbakh, and in it she said that the Syrian Women's Union began the first fruits of its work in the current year by performing the greatest national Arab duty: aiding our Palestinian brothers, whom the tyrannical hand of the Jews flung far away, driving them by force from their homes, so that they were scattered and left with no shelter to take them in, no food to sustain them, and no clothing to cover their bodies. The Union saw that its first duty was to secure the food and clothing they needed and to care for their children; nor did the Union forget to adopt a large number of their children, placing them in numerous schools where they drink in learning and gain culture at the expense of the Syrian Women's Union, so that they should not be deprived of the learning that is necessary in this life.

The Syrian Women's Union also displayed tangible activity in November, that is, during the period of the parliamentary elections. The Syrian woman was the first Arab woman to obtain the right to vote, but it was a truncated right; so the Syrian Union came forward with a petition that this right be made complete, by giving the Syrian woman her political rights full and undiminished. It presented petitions to the responsible authorities, took a positive part in the committee on the constitution, and presented its proposals. And the Union kept urging the rural woman, who had the right to vote, not to neglect her duty and to hasten to the ballot box to elect the nation's deputies.

The Syrian Arab Women's Union delegated one of its members, Mrs. Isabel Hannawi, to represent it at the UNESCO conference in Paris in January. Mrs. Hannawi was able to persuade the responsible men at this conference to concern themselves with the refugee question, particularly on its educational and cultural side. She also obtained a promise from the head of UNESCO to increase their allocations and to extend a helping hand to them. In the wake of the Union's success in its work, many women's organizations that were not members of it asked to join, and the Union welcomed them.

Iraq

As for the land of the two rivers, it was represented most ably by the gracious Mrs. Ismat, wife of Sabah Bey al-Said, and Miss Adiba Ibrahim.

Mrs. al-Said carried a delicate and sincere greeting from the plains of Mesopotamia to Lebanon, the enchanting garden of the Arab world... She presented a summary of the women's movement and its activity, saying that Iraq goes forward with deliberateness and calm — which does not mean that the women's movement is slow or imperceptible; the stage that the Iraqi woman has traversed in her modern renaissance is worthy of pride, but it lacks publicity, and this, no doubt, is what she is most to be reproached for. In Iraq there are six active women's associations, each of which has devoted its efforts to one side of social life: the women's branch of the Red Crescent Society, the Society for the Protection of Children, the Society for Combating Social Ills, the Arab Home Society, the Rabita Society, and the Houses of the Nation.

The Iraqi Women's Union publishes a magazine bearing its name, which attends to woman's own affairs alongside its attention to the general affairs of society.

This Union is a member of the International Women's Union; it also took part in the international women's peace congress and won membership in the world organization for the rights of families. The Iraqi government has ever supported the woman's renaissance, aiding it in both moral and material ways — witness the imposing building whose ownership it granted the Union to be the seat of its work, over and above the annual grant fixed for it.

Iraq was the only Arab country to send women delegates to the meeting of the United Nations Organization in 1947, where they raised the voice of the Arab woman, who desires from her inmost heart to support the men of Arabism in achieving everything that will bring good and standing to her country.

Mrs. Ismat al-Said closed her address with this summing-up, splendid in meaning and expression: "We all feel the same pains... and live by the same hopes... And if the ranks are united, hearts joined, and efforts and hands combined