The Speech Delivered by Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura, President of the General Arab Women's Union, at the Luncheon Given by the Lebanese Women's Union at the Normandy Hotel for Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

It is no longer possible for woman to stand apart from events and surprises, in the exercise of rights and duties and in full awareness of responsibilities. It is no wonder, then, that the women of the Arabs have seized this opportunity to speak to a great leader who holds in politics the place that opens the way before her to look to what is right, if she so wills, after she has heard and seen and learned that homelands have been usurped, homes demolished, women made wretched, and children driven out — while in this world there stand a United Nations organization, an international Security Council, and a Declaration of Human Rights. For whom, then, were these created? The Palestine question is the question of all the Arabs, and the question of the refugees is a humanitarian question that demands a speedy decision of their case, for they face certain death if things continue as they are: their expulsion from their country, their dispersal, and the destruction of an entire people, with no justification but political ambitions that have wrongfully held sway and passed judgment, their excuse being the settling of one people in the place of another. I do not deny that the Jews in Europe were persecuted and dispersed and tasted horrors of torment, in injustice and aggression; but compensating them must not come at the expense of an unarmed, peaceable people, secure in the sanctuary of the messenger of peace. If injustice uprooted the Jewish element and expelled it from Europe, it is not right that the Palestinian Arabs should be driven from their country by great powers of which justice and fair dealing and the protection of man from man's aggression are expected.

I heard you say that you would like to hear the articles of the Declaration of Human Rights recited, and here I fulfill this wish for you and repeat in your hearing some of the articles of this Declaration, begging Your Ladyship to press the competent authorities to apply it to the Palestinian refugees, and drawing your attention to Articles One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Seven, Nine, Ten, Thirteen, Fifteen, and Seventeen — for it was for such as these that the Declaration was created.

The Palestinian refugees are of the sons of man, and they have every right to demand of the framers and supporters of this Declaration that it be applied to them. They want to return to their country, to their homes, to recover their properties and receive their monies. They want to obtain their right to life.

The relief sent to the refugees, be it much or little, does not solve their problems, does not heal their wounds, and is no substitute to them for their homelands. And now I remind you of Article Twenty-Nine, of the responsibility laid upon the individual toward the community, to which you drew attention in the course of your talk on this Declaration; and now that you have seen the conditions and opinions of the Palestinian refugees and of those around them — will you fulfill the hope placed in you as a woman, as a part of a whole, letting conscience rule and pronouncing justice?

We knew you as the First Lady of the United States; then we knew you as chairman of the committee on women's rights; then we knew you as the one lady who took part in framing the Declaration of Human Rights, of which you were the first president; then we saw you representing your country in the United Nations. So today you are a part of all this world; today you enjoy an exalted station, and in the measure of the importance of your world position we place in Your Ladyship today a great hope and heavy burdens and grave responsibilities; and in the measure of the talents God has bestowed on you, humanity demands of you work and fruit.

You have heard, gracious lady, from the president of the Lebanese Women's Union, and have heard of the effort of the Lebanese woman and of the works she performs in helping to raise the social, cultural, and political level. And now you hear a voice representing the women's unions in the Arab countries — Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine — voicing wishes that it raises to you as a woman who understands woman's nature and feels woman's feeling, and as an astute stateswoman who has plunged into the depths of politics, grasped its secrets, and perceived its dangers and its harms, and who would wish that mankind might be spared the fires of its war and its destruction, so that it might build a better world for us, for our children, and for our grandchildren — as the late lamented President, Mr. Roosevelt, appealed to the world.

I address you on behalf of the women of Arabdom who join in striving to find a just solution to a great social problem created by unjust political rulings, which have shaken their faith in human justice and made them lose confidence in international laws, because in truth these are not applied to all human beings alike. We see the world struggling, sacrificing much, to bring about a human unity and a world unity, to preserve this earth and to protect man from the sons of man.

I do not conceal from you that in the East doubts and suspicions beset us, so that we stand before world events dismayed, because of the grievous wound that has befallen the Arab nation. We cannot ignore the truth or neglect this human aspect, for it is of the greatest importance; confidence and reassurance must be restored, so that we may be in harmony and work together in a spirit of amity and brotherhood.

Woman's help in building a better world and a sounder society is a stamp that marks our present age. Why, then, do you not defend the plundered right before the great powers that hold authority and execution, restoring to humanity its dishonored honor and carrying to the world the torch of right and guidance and the message of peace? Thereby you would record a great human victory and an immortal women's glory, which history would inscribe to your name.

Ibtihaj Kaddoura
President of the General Arab Women's Union