Greetings and salutations!
In the last issue of “The Woman's Voice” we addressed to you a short letter in English from the Union of Lebanese Women in Beirut, and we asked you to undertake a new campaign to get in touch with us and tell us of your efforts and your works in the field of charity and social life. And we promised to give you a brief report on the works the Union is carrying out, and a short account of each of the associations belonging to it. All this for no other purpose than to increase the acquaintance between us, and to create a firm spiritual bond that ties us to you and endears to you the mother homeland — and returning to it, or visiting it.
We put that letter and the reports in English so that they might reach our Lebanese sisters whom circumstances have not blessed with a knowledge of the Arabic language. We shall continue these communications, God willing. As for this letter, it is for the greater part of you — for those who read “The Woman's Voice” and find in its news and its articles a delight and a pleasure that bring back to them their longing and yearning for the mother homeland.
The letter from Mexico in the January 1951 issue, and the news of our ladies and young ladies there, came as an answer to our appeal — indeed, a lovely gem bespeaking the exchange of thoughts. So in the name of the Union of Lebanese Women I salute the leaders of the women's movement in Mexico, and I call upon Mrs. Renée Abou Khater, Mrs. Hanneh Abou Mrad, and Miss Maud Khoury to be the link between us and the dear community in which we take such pride. To them from us a thousand greetings.
And we call upon the accomplished lady of letters, Madame Adib Bey Nahhas, our Minister Plenipotentiary in Argentina, to let us hear her sweet voice, and to go on keeping the Union informed of the news of the honorable community there and of the works of its virtuous women.
The president of the Union, Mrs. Evelyne Bustros, has charged me to offer a fragrant greeting to our great woman of letters, Mrs. Mari Yanni Ata Allah. It matters to us to know how far her efforts to obtain Lebanese citizenship have come, and whether we may offer our services to conclude the formalities that will take place in Lebanon. We wait, too, for her news of the Lebanese women in Chile, and we stand as volunteers in her service, for the securing of her citizenship and her return to the homeland that is proud of her.
The pen would fail and memory betray us were we to try to name the famous ones among our ladies and sisters in Brazil, whose works and achievements echo every day in the pages of the newspapers and in the folds of hearts. As for our sisters in Australia and Africa, we thirst to hear their voice. So let “The Woman's Voice” be the free and permanent platform between us. And here, my sisters, is a summary of the Union's report on some of its latest sessions. Until we meet at the first of every month.
As for the committee charged with communicating with you, it is the Committee for Publicity and Publication, composed of Mesdames Anissa Najjar, Hasiba Freije, Hamideh al-Sheikh, In'am al-Saghir, Mary Hanania, and Muneera Shehadeh. The address is either through “The Woman's Voice” or to Madame Dr. Ibrahim Shehadeh, Maamari Street, Ras Beirut — Lebanon.
A special session was held at the Military Club on Wednesday, January 3, to amend the constitution; the change of the Union's name from “Arab” to
simply “Lebanese” was one of the amendments.
* A committee was elected, composed of Sitt Ibtihaj Kaddoura as president, and Mesdames Ni'mat Qaranful, Hassan Daouk, Janette Tadros, Najla Kfoury, Hayat Beyhum, Hasiba Freije, and Anissa Najjar as members, to look into ways of nourishing the Union financially. It decided that a soirée should be held at the Saint-Georges Hotel for this purpose.
* Our delegates to the Executive Committee of the Women's Organizations reported that the question of woman's rights is moving slowly in government circles owing to the remoteness of the coming elections, while the non-political organizations support it with enthusiasm.
* The Misses Mary Hanania and Hamideh al-Sheikh were added to the Committee for Publicity and Publication.
* It was decided to ask Mrs. Aminah Khoury Makdisi to speak about her journey to the congresses in the United States, at a special session in the latter part of this February.
* The president of the Union, Mrs. Evelyne Bustros, laid out a new direction the Union is taking in its work: the village woman, and her revival economically, politically, and socially. A committee was elected of the following ladies: the wife of Mr. Albert Rihani as president, and the wife of the engineer Fouad Najjar and Mr. Rashed Rishani as members, to study the ways and means and report on the matter at the next meeting.
keeps an annual
scholarship fund for the tuition of one academically outstanding student in the College. Through a bi-monthly bulletin, alumnae in the five centinents keep in constant touch with the College and with each other.
Yours sincerely, MARY HANANIA President Alumnae Association