The Lebanese Women's Union took part in the funeral of the late Emira Nazira Joumblatt, whom Lebanon lost last month. The president of the Union, Mrs. Evelyne Bustros, was at the head of the delegation that took part in this national duty, and Mrs. Anissa Najjar was charged with delivering the Union's address. She spoke the following eloquent words:
Too soon, my departed lady — the determination was still abundant, the resolve still unbending, the devotion to the service of the needy still unbridled. The Lebanese woman still flounders, perplexed, between a man who understands her capacity and would gladly make her his equal, and another, entrenched in power, who does not see in her a complete human being and so denies her her right to life. And the Lebanese Women's Union, which has made of your deeds and your stands a lamp pointing out the right path, and a conclusive proof of the intelligence and wisdom of the Lebanese woman, feels deep sorrow and regret at the setting of your shining star.
Ladies —
When I look into the eyes of her dear daughter, I read the meaning of the loss of the virtuous mother, the mother who was a friend, the great mother. And likewise I read in the eyes of family and friends the grief and sorrow for the guide, the leader, and the friend. But today we do not weep only for a noble mother and a great friend: we weep for a state embodied in a woman.
This palace, with its mistress, was an army against oppression and aggression. How many a wrong known to the people of this region in particular was lifted from them by the great "Sitt," through her surpassing sagacity and her adroit handling of the tyrannical colonizer!
This palace was, and still is, a precinct of security that lightens the state's task.
And this domain — this woman's domain — was tended by a mother's tenderness, a sister's affection, soundness of judgment, and a penetrating eye; it neither wronged the people nor quarreled with them. So when the Lebanese Women's Union offers its condolences for the departed lady, it means the virtuous mother, and the woman who, by the excellence of her mind, was equal to great deeds — and was, for Lebanon, the equal of its best men.
* The Political Committee of the Lebanese Women's Union stated that the Legislative Committee of the Chamber of Deputies had proposed granting woman her right in the municipal council, and that the government had rejected the rest of woman's political demands. Upon this statement a peaceful women's demonstration took place, and the ladies presented a petition demanding woman's full right to the office of the President of the Chamber of Deputies.
* The Women's Union resolved that its members should support every candidate for the Chamber of Deputies whose platform includes support of woman's political right.
* The Union commended the Health Committee for its valuable services to the city and its activity in its work.
* The Committee for the Uplift of the Village Woman reported that it has selected the following villages: Baalmshiyeh, Ain al-Muwaffaq, Ras al-Ballut, al-Hilaliyah, and Harat Hamzah, to be the nucleus of its work. The villages named are without electricity, school, doctor, nurse, or licensed midwife. The project requires a thousand Lebanese liras, apart from the dispensary, which the Red Cross will be asked to undertake; and the inhabitants of the villages named have contributed the building and some of its furnishings.
* The Women's Union has begun selling tickets for the tea dance it will hold on the fifth of May 1951; the ticket sells at seven Lebanese liras a person, and the proceeds of this party will go to serve the Union's various projects. On this occasion the Lebanese airline company donated a prize: a round-trip ticket on its lines in the Arab countries. The conditions for winning this prize will be announced shortly. The Union thanks the Lebanese airline company for this handsome gesture, and thanks Dr. Ahmad Samih al-Khalidi, who wished the company's donation to be worth far more than the value of the tickets presented to it.
* Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah of Zahle has reopened its kindergarten after a winter holiday that lasted three months. It is the first school in Lebanon to follow this system, prompted by the severity of the cold in January, February, and March and the difficulty of the children's going back and forth between home and school, and also by the parents' desire that the children should flock to the kindergarten in the summer months, to roam and play within its walls and in its playground, safe from the dust of the street and the burning heat of the sun. It will open its cultural season with monthly lecture gatherings that will have a fine echo and the benefit that is awaited.
* The British Cultural Institute invited the ladies active in the social and cultural renaissance in Beirut to a tea party held to introduce Mrs. Mary Buchan, a visitor to Beirut and the East and secretary of the international institution in Switzerland, the "Stauntree" children's village. After tea and introductions, the company listened to the gracious visitor deliver a fine lecture on women's work in Britain, enumerating the important women's associations with a brief sketch of their aims and their work. She spoke finally of this model village in Switzerland, which cares for orphans from the ages of 7 to 16 from all the European countries and teaches the various crafts together with the sciences, so that the pupil is trained to rely on himself and earn his living when he leaves the institution. The company left the Institute, every tongue giving thanks for this opportunity of hearing this famous visitor, and with a keen longing that we in the Middle East might have a model village like it, to care for the children and orphans of the Arab countries.