Women's Week – The Opening Address from Radio Lebanon

The address with which Mrs. Ellen Rihan opened "Women's Week" from Radio Lebanon on January 7, 1952.

The Lord God said: It is not good that Adam should be alone; I will make him a helper, his counterpart. And He took one of his ribs, and the rib which He had taken from Adam He built into a woman, and brought her to Adam.

Ladies and gentlemen:

God called woman a helper to man, his counterpart. In these two words there is clear proof that she was not created to be a subordinate or a bondmaid robbed of her right. And God entrusted to woman the loftiest of functions when He singled her out for motherhood and bestowed on her the title "umm" — mother — the title which, in its two letters, expresses all the love, sacrifice, and service that is in mankind.

Yes, woman is man's helper and his counterpart. Of this His Excellency Abdullah Bey al-Yafi, the Prime Minister, and the members of his cabinet are convinced, and so the ministerial statement came to contain an article providing that woman be given her political rights in full. His Excellency Mr. Habib Abu Shahla, chairman of the Administration and Justice Committee, believes in it, together with a number of the committee's members, and they therefore voted to recognize woman's political right. A great number of the deputies and of the Lebanese believe in it, and the Lebanese press, various syndicates, and many organizations support it. For this reason the Executive Committee of the Women's Organizations in Lebanon resolved to make this week of the month of January 1952 Women's Week; and here I am, performing the duty of opening it in the committee's name from Radio Lebanon this evening.

The Executive Committee of the Women's Organizations is made up of nine ladies elected by representatives of the women's associations in Beirut in the month of April 1950, and then twice re-elected: the first time on June 15, 1950, and the second on February 5, 1951. Those elected on the two occasions were the representatives of fifty-seven women's organizations from all parts of Lebanon. Nine ladies whom the Lebanese woman has charged with speaking in her name; they are, in alphabetical order: Emily Fares Ibrahim, Laure Tabet, Dr. Jamal Karam Harfouche, Najla Saab, May Fayyad, Ibtihaj Kaddoura, Najla Kfoury, the lawyer Laure Nasr, and Ellen Rihan. A committee ruled by concord, sisterhood, and mutual support; work that does not seek the limelight; a rotating presidency, a single goal, and unceasing effort. This committee is backed by the women's organizations and by public opinion in every part of Lebanon. You have seen, O Lebanese, the handbills in the windows of the shops; you will see them in the cinema houses; you will read the endorsements in the newspapers,

and you will hear them from Radio Lebanon. Women's Week is Lebanon's week. Meetings are being held in Tripoli, Tyre, Sidon, Zahle, Baalbek, and Aley. And on the thirteenth day of the present month a great meeting will be held at the Roxy Cinema under the patronage of the First Lady of Lebanon, Mrs. Laure Khoury, wife of His Excellency the President of the Republic; Abdullah Bey al-Yafi will open it, and speeches will be given by Mr. Habib Abu Shahla, Mr. Subhi Mahmasani, Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura, Mrs. Emily Fares Ibrahim, and the lawyer Miss Laure Nasr. The Lebanese woman asks for her right, and she believes she will obtain it. She is a citizen who pays taxes like the man: why, then, is her opinion not sought on the spending of those taxes on the projects that bring good to Lebanon? She is a citizen who is punished exactly like the man if she breaks the laws: why, then, does she not join with the man in making the laws? She raises the rising generation and directs the girls' schools — the schools of half the nation: why, then, does she not help in drawing up the curricula of instruction? She suffers from the high cost of living and feels its harshness; she sacrifices and studies and works to economize in expenses: why, then, does she not help in studying the ways of fighting the high cost of living? Why does she not take part in framing the laws to raise the standard of health?

Woman is a working member of society, a useful member who cannot be dispensed with. It is not permissible that she be treated as a subordinate whose duty is to carry out the laws while having no part in making them. She is half the nation, and she refuses to remain in the margin. She must be inside, in the house of the nation, where the destiny of the nation is decided.

In the name of the Executive Committee of the Women's Organizations in Lebanon, and in the name of the Lebanese woman, I come before the master of the country, the father of the Lebanese, to ask for justice. We are half your people, Your Excellency the President — a half whose political right is trampled, in a country that helped draw up the Charter of Human Rights. The head of this beloved homeland will be lifted high when woman receives her right, and so takes pride and rests assured of her dignity; when the discrimination in treatment between man and woman disappears; and when the men of this homeland no longer oppose the recognition of woman's right. Remember the month of Tishrin of the year 1943, the month of deliverance, and remember woman's share in the struggle and in giving voice to the feeling of the nation. Lebanon belongs to all its children — to you and to us. And there is no doubt that the Lebanese man will not accept that the Lebanese woman be treated like the criminal or the imbecile, and so be denied a right that God gave her. Nor will he accept that Lebanon lag behind the procession of the civilized nations, in every one of which woman exercises her political right. Nor will he accept that the right of the mother, the wife, the sister, and the daughter be usurped. And the Lebanese woman is confident of the success of this national cause in the Lebanese Chamber, that she may help the man in working to raise the standing of the homeland — which will never rise, and never attain the rank it must reach, except through the cooperation of all its children.

Long live Lebanon, and the men of Lebanon, and the Lebanese woman!