Problems of the Lebanese Woman (Reportage — Conclusion of the Survey)

We published in last month's issue the first part of the survey on the problems of the Lebanese woman; below we publish the conclusion of this survey.

Answers of Mrs. Faiza Maalouf Antiba

(1) I do not believe that the educated Lebanese woman performs her mission of social reform in the fullest manner, because the Lebanese woman in general lacks two essential qualities without which her work cannot be complete.

The first is the spirit of cooperation and solidarity in work, and absorption in a task for the sake of completing it, not for the sake of appearing through it.

The second is true sacrifice, which requires the woman to give of herself generously for the sake of completing the reform that is sought. Unless the woman can develop these two qualities in herself, she cannot accomplish any work of value and effectiveness in society.

And when the woman becomes worthy of the work, she must first fix the final goal toward which she aspires to lead her society. Then she selects the steps that lead to that goal. And once she has selected them, she must plant her feet firmly upon them, moving always forward, whatever efforts this costs her and whatever sacrifices she is forced to make in order to reach that goal.

No serious work can be accomplished without laying down studied programs that guarantee arrival at the end intended from that work, since every arbitrary piece of work, done on the margin, without studied programs laid down for it, cannot lead to a fruitful result, and may sometimes lead to errors that society finds difficult to correct afterward.

The mechanical services that the educated Lebanese woman performs today within the reform associations cannot be called the performance of a mission in this life, because a mission presupposes serious work and continuous sacrifice that guarantee arrival at a tangible result. Woman's efforts today are very small compared with what her society demands of her, and the result of her work is smaller still, by far, than the efforts she expends.

Therefore, if the woman wishes to perform her reform mission, she must look upon it with seriousness and resolve, through a definite program, and place her unbending will in pledge to the realization of that mission.

(2) The problems that the Lebanese woman faces today in the literary field do not differ in essence from the problems the man faces in this arena; they are in the first degree social, material problems. The writer today practices his literature as a secondary occupation, not a primary one, because he is obliged first of all to meet his material needs before turning to his literature. And true literature demands total devotion, of mind and body, if it is to be counted complete literature. Hence the first problem facing the woman of letters is the problem of recognition of the value of literature, and of rewarding it with a material reward that guarantees her a secure life.

(3) The most prominent problem of upbringing, I think, is the lack of complete understanding between the growing child and his parents, since the bond between them is usually severed at the very age when the child needs it most. Parents must attend to this problem early, so as to leave no room for it; for once relations are severed, it becomes very difficult afterward to establish a firm bond between them, and the child then turns, in solving his problems and in his private consultations, to his companions, who lack the very experience and knowledge that he lacks, and so he takes undesirable paths — not through any deficiency in himself, but through a deficiency in his relations with his parents.

(4) I do not believe that the Lebanese woman's participation in public life constitutes a danger to her home life; on the contrary, when the woman takes part in public life she has contributed to an important aspect of social life, one that guarantees the preservation of the family's existence, since we cannot separate work inside the home from work outside it, because the two together form one complete social unit. If the woman contributes to reforming the environment in which she lives, and to creating a sound social life, she will have contributed to preserving her family's existence in a respect no less important than her work within her family for the sake of preserving it. An advanced society is the greatest guarantee for the preservation of the home.

Besides this, the woman today finds that she has time enough to supervise the affairs of her house and to perform the duties required of her toward her family, and there remains to her an ample margin of time which, if she does not spend it in serious work for the reform of her society, she may spend in negative activity, becoming the cause, in the first degree, of corrupting that society and destroying its existence — and consequently of destroying the existence of her own family.

(1) The woman today, passing as she is through a violent social upheaval, has, as we see, met the needs of society, and has proven by her awareness and her culture a palpable advance in the field of her renaissance. But she has not yet attained perfection, and before she reaches the ideal goal and performs her mission within the bounds of God and the honor of the homeland, she has long stretches still to run.

Yes, the steps she has taken are indeed fortunate steps that must without dispute be reckoned with, since these steps along the road of social reform may be counted the first practical steps of tangible consequence. But the movement of comprehensive reform is still dormant; we still improvise reform by sheer improvisation, taking hold of a corner of each side and then turning away to another, with no drawn policy or intended goal.

We must be frank with ourselves and admit the defects and diseases that still ravage our society despite the mighty efforts the woman is making today in the social field. No doubt this frankness will be an impetus to her feeling that duties lie upon her many times greater than what she now performs: she must fight hunger, ignorance, poverty, and fanaticism, just as she must touch with her strong spirit every point of weakness and backwardness that she senses in this environment.

(2) Woman has passed through ages in which the waves of change and evolution tossed her between ebb and flow, and during those ages her life and her steps were exposed to events and shocks that made her fall behind at times and stand still at others. But no sooner had the weights and shackles been shifted and the heralds of freedom appeared to her than she began to raise her voice and her argument, to make the man feel that she is his sister, with no difference between her and him. But he — alas — gave her no attentive ear, and strove to exclude her from politics. Little did he know that in this act of his lies a hideous crime, and in it, too, a degradation of his own dignity and the dignity of the homeland — a degradation over which he ought to revolt before she does, and about which he must not keep silent. Has he not heard that no civilization in history has arisen without woman? Has he not seen that the Lebanese woman today has come to share with him in most aspects of reform, material and moral, and that there remains in our modern life nothing — no field — that woman has not entered?

The woman must therefore be made equal to the man in his political rights, so that she can join her voice to his and assist him in all the reforms he undertakes in the various stages of life; she must likewise take part with him in enacting the laws that regulate the affairs of the life shared between man and woman. Nor do I think the woman, in making this demand, is seeking a favor; for God gave her the right of allegiance and set her in the office of religious counsel. She to whom the Creator granted the right of allegiance to His prophets may not be robbed by the creature of the right to vote.

(3) Among the most prominent basic problems of home upbringing with which we must begin is the problem of morals, for morals are the pillar of the nation: the nation prospers only by their soundness, and it has no standing except through them. The moral deterioration that has struck us is the secret of what we suffer in the spread of hypocrisy, cheating, and deceit; it is the secret of our social deterioration — a deterioration before which many a sound tradition and perfect ideal has given way. The reform of souls and the straightening of morals must be the first aim in home upbringing, for by their soundness society is made sound, and by their corruption it is corrupted and collapses.

There is no doubt that the best means to the straightening of morals and the reform of souls lies in instilling the teaching of religion in souls. Religion is the best restraint: it inspires the loftiest ideals and calls to the straightest paths. Truly we are poor in religion, in an age when material life has overwhelmed the things of the spirit. Let us then equip the new generation with a spiritual immunity that will enable it to stand fast in support of the right and to work for the highest ideals amid the crush of life and the tyranny of matter.

(4) I do not deny that woman is for the home; but she will not truly be the queen of this home and the apple of its eye unless she takes part in public life. For woman is not merely the flower of the home: she is the spirit of society. The woman who has received a higher education and shared in public life has proven that she is fitter than others for married and domestic life, and that this education of hers has only increased her attachment to husband and child, and her grasp of the affairs of upbringing and the home. Beyond that, she has been able, in addition, to practice a work she masters, to earn from it, and to benefit society.

And what harm is there in the gifted Lebanese woman being an engineer, a worker, or a social reformer? Here we see Madame Curie completing her husband's work, while the wife of the astronomer Flammarion took to turning the screws of the great telescope before which her husband grew gray and grew old.

Has the woman no right to develop her knowledge and to aid, with her culture, that tormented humanity? The woman will never depart from her nature and her femininity, however lofty her culture and however numerous her works in public life. We must help her, then, to be at one and the same time a mother to her children and a support to the social family: there is no danger here to her home.

(1) The educated Lebanese woman, taken as a whole, has given many proofs of her feeling of responsibility toward her society; she has likewise made attempts in which she demonstrated a sound awareness and a deep understanding of her reform mission in the social field. Among the most important of these attempts are her endeavor to fight illiteracy, and her founding of special institutions to protect childhood from vagrancy, from the dangers of disease and destitution, and from exploitation in labor.

And the Lebanese woman, while she takes pride in being in the vanguard of those who registered for themselves the first step in the arena of social reform among the Lebanese elements, feels that she still falls short of performing her mission in the fullest manner. The most important causes of this falling short are a deficiency in preparation and guidance on the part of home and school, alongside her deprivation of a share in public life — a share that would enable her to contribute effectively to drawing up the plans of social welfare and to carrying out her portion of those plans. Because of the laws in force and the traditions followed, her activity remains confined within the sphere of private efforts; and I would have wished, after the competence and ready aptitude she has shown, to see her occupy her fitting place in the public departments.

(2) The problems of the Lebanese woman in the literary field are part of a whole, and they do not differ in kind from the problems faced by the writers of Lebanon in general. The most important of these is the position of literature in Lebanon with respect to the economic dangers that beset it and force the writer to employ his talents in making a living rather than in production. The inclination to savor literature and to practice it is a natural bent in the Lebanese, women and men alike. In my belief, literary production is among the most splendid and beautiful kinds of production that Lebanon can give the world, because of the natural inclinations joined together in the character of its sons. But production of high quality calls upon the individual for good preparation and devotion, and both have passed beyond the reach of Lebanon's writers because of their need to make a living. This difficult situation not only keeps the writer from producing; it creates for him a total difficulty in printing and publishing what he has produced.

The masters of literature in Lebanon, women and men, stand in total need of moral and material encouragement, and this encouragement has become a necessity that cannot be avoided. A country like Lebanon, which has set the mission of learning above the mission of the sword and the dirham, must strengthen this mission with all the power and energy it possesses, so that in time its literature may occupy its fitting place in the field of world production.

(3) The most important problem of upbringing in the Lebanese home is the parents' ignorance of the child's psychology, and of the correct, sound rules to be followed in

guiding him and preparing him to face life.

And since each of the two parents is a partner in solving this problem, they must not entrust his care to the maid or the governess. It is the duty of the well-off father to secure tenderness and love for his wife and children, and not to confine his mission to securing the material side alone. Society, in its widest and most general form, must secure work for the head of the needy family; and the mother must secure a good upbringing, so that each of the two cooperates in nourishing the bodily and the spiritual sides in the child's own self, and in giving him such opportunities as guarantee him a balanced, healthy growth.

(4) I believe that the Lebanese woman's participation in public life constitutes no danger to her home, on condition that this participation be accompanied by a deep understanding of the complementary mission for which woman has been prepared since existence began. Woman, by her nature, is a mother before all else; and if it is not granted her to be a mother to children of her own, she becomes a mother to her society. In the light of this nature, overflowing with tenderness, affection, and love, I see in the Lebanese woman who shares in public life no danger to her home; on the contrary, I see in her a messenger who checks the forces of hatred, greed, and rancor that threaten human society with extinction and with a return to savagery; and I see in her, too, a faithful messenger of the essential causes, who takes the opportunities of sharing in public life as a means of strengthening the existence of the home, the true kingdom of woman.

And if the Lebanese woman is prepared for this participation correctly, she will without doubt be able to distinguish between the important and the more important, and will be able, thanks to this distinction, to apportion time and effort for the good of what is most fitting.

The experiment of coeducation has given us proof after proof of improvement in the quality of conduct and of production, once it was granted to the two sexes to work together in a single field. And just as woman's influence has moved toward the public good in the matter of coeducation, so does this strengthen the hope that she will take a similar step in the field of public life.

The danger to the existence of the home comes of woman's absence from the public stage, of her not sharing in deciding the destinies of economy, education, health, and society. And those who fear for the existence of the home — and the woman is more jealous than the most jealous over this existence — must realize that the danger to the home is the child of the sudden leap attended by ignorance, alongside poverty and deficiency in upbringing. Let them take comfort in the saying that if we hand woman the weapon of knowledge and upbringing, we have handed her the keys of happiness and love, and she will braid upon the brow of home and society the wreath of silent sacrifice, and the laurel of production made complete.