The Role of the Lebanese Woman in the Era of Independence

President Sheikh Bechara El-Khoury

Delivered over Radio Lebanon on the occasion of the renewal of His Excellency the President's mandate, expressing the position of the Lebanese woman in recent times.

From behind this microphone the voice of the Lebanese woman rises to congratulate His Excellency the venerable President on this day, the anniversary of his mandate... From behind this microphone the voice of woman rises, giving expression to her hopes and her wishes on this happy occasion.

And it pleases the Lebanese woman to take toward herself the stance of a careful examiner, and to expose this self to criticism and to wounding, to learn whether she has fallen short in the performance of her duty, or given proof of negligence and want of maturity... On such a day of every year the reckoning is well made... What is the role the Lebanese woman has played in the era of independence?

If we were to compare the life of the Lebanese woman today with her life in the past era — her activity and her awareness today with what she formerly had of them — the judgment would not be hard for us: that in this era a comprehensive awakening embraces every side of her social and spiritual life, and even her political life. And this comprehensive awakening has led woman to her present position of dissatisfaction, of standing up to man, of holding fast to the demand for equality... Nor is this position an arbitrary one, as some allege; rather it is the result of a true feeling that the Lebanese woman has developed palpably in the era of independence: her faculties have grown, she has become aware of her cause and has debated it, and so she has learned the secret of her lagging behind her brother man, and learned the secret of her failure in the performance of her first mission... This knowledge has led her to demand equality, and to press the demand, for there is nothing like this fundamental difference to hold woman down, to weaken her morale, and to lessen her confidence in herself and in her possibilities in life.

It is noticeable, of late, that the Lebanese woman works in silence, and rarely raises a clamor about this cause of hers. Yet this appearance of hers does not indicate any flagging of zeal or weakness of hope; in truth she prefers silence, avoiding a collision of opinion between herself and man, and avoiding the question mark in his eye. For at one moment he is weak in his confidence in her, at another he charges her with all manner of accusations, and sometimes he stands at her side, a champion of her cause.

As for the position of woman in Lebanon, it has another face... She remembers well that she has never once fallen short in the performance of a national duty; rather she grasped the national causes as man grasped them, and treated their problems by the same means with which man treated them... And on the other hand, here are her social, cultural, and humanitarian institutions, scattered through the length and breadth of the country — a speaking witness to her activity, to her long and fruitful striving, and to her love of the good, the true, and the beautiful. She is forever in the service of these three values, a sincere service that covets no wage and no thanks, its sole aim the easing of human suffering and the raising of the humanity in man to a higher level.

And then there are man's fears, which whisper to him at every turn that woman, once she gains her rights, will desert her family nest and compete with him in every occupation. As one of the women of this country, and with my woman's turn of mind, I wish to assure man and to set him at ease: nothing of the kind will ever happen. Woman, by her instinct, prefers no atmosphere in the world to the atmosphere of her own little house, and nothing will distract her from tending her cell with tenderness and love. This is woman's first mission, which she is wholly intent on fulfilling and on preserving in its sanctity, and from which she will not swerve for the sake of any other end. And it is precisely for the sake of this mission that woman today demands her rights and her equality. This equality is the only road to our rising in the eyes of our little ones, the children of the rising generation.

And I assure you: man's view of us will not come right, nor will he pay us the respect we desire for ourselves... nothing of this will come to pass until there grows up in our homes a new generation of children who look upon their two parents with an equal regard of respect, and who value their sisters exactly as they value themselves. As for the attempt to persuade our men, by whatever logic we possess, of the justice of our cause and of the importance of this point of view of ours from the standpoint of upbringing — it always miscarries and fails, and rarely bears fruit.

The cause of woman, which is passing today through its final stage, is deeper than man supposes. It is the cause of independence in the true sense; at its core it aims at the service of the family and at preparing it for a life worthy of free nations; it aims at the practical exercise of equality among our children, and at planting mutual respect between the sexes from their tenderest years... And nothing of this will be accomplished until woman gains her rights in full, and so recovers her dignity, and recovers her confidence in herself, and becomes able at last — once her moral forces are made firm — to stand upon rock, her feet no longer sinking in the sand; until she secures her place in the family, and the place of her daughters after her, and balance is achieved in the home. By that alone can we take pride in our independence, and live a free and elevated life.