The Monthly Report of the Lebanese Women's Union

The Women's Union held its general meeting at the Lebanese Cénacle at half past three on the afternoon of Wednesday, 22/11/51. After the names of those present were read, it appeared that the Society of the Art of Nursing and the other societies outside Beirut, except Aley and Zahle, were absent.

The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. Then Sitt Ibtihaj Kaddoura mentioned that she, together with a committee, had paid a visit to Mrs. Makkawi, the representative of the Lebanese Union at the Geneva conference, and had learned from her of her noble stand on the question of Marrakesh and of her cooperation with Mrs. Nabarawi, the representative of Egypt, in placing the refugee question among the studies of the Committee on Peace and Education. The Union resolved to send Mrs. Makkawi a letter of thanks, requesting in it her report on the conference; then it was proposed that the Union concern itself with contacting the wives of the Lebanese ministers plenipotentiary, so that the voice of the Lebanese woman may be heard outside Lebanon.

The members asked that the Union continue its meetings at the Lebanese Cénacle instead of the Officers' Club, this by permission of the Minister of Education.

Mrs. Anissa Najjar set forth the necessity of gathering all information about the Union in special registers, and asked the former presidents and administrative committees, and the presidents of the societies, to hand over such papers and statements as they possess; whereupon Sitt Ibtihaj handed over the correspondence that had accumulated with her during the summer holiday.

Mrs. Adelaide Rishani, on behalf of Miss Edma Bayoud, announced the election of Miss Nelly Ayoub as private secretary of the Union beginning the first of December 1951; she likewise renewed the request that the Union answer the questions of the Directorate of Social Affairs concerning information about the societies, and then asked the members for books for the library of the women's prison.

The question of holding the Union's two meetings — the administrative and the general — at one and the same time was put forward; the idea was rejected, and it was resolved to move the administrative committee's meeting back from half past three to four in the afternoon.

Mrs. Najjar presented a report on the correspondence accumulated during the summer holiday. She read a letter from Mrs. Mari Yanni Ata Allah on the Lebanese women's societies in Chile, which it was resolved to publish in the magazine The Woman's Voice. She then presented the United Nations reports on the assistance given to Yemen, Syria, and the Saudi Kingdom, most of it agricultural and technical. She presented the request for assistance from the National Nursing School headed by Dr. Khalidi, and it was resolved to write him in encouragement of the project while declining financial assistance; likewise the subscription to the magazine al-Raja, belonging to the two ladies, was declined, along with a refusal to sign the appeal of the Brethren of Peace group as well.

Miss In'am al-Saghir read the letter of the International Women's Union asking that a delegate be sent on its behalf to the Conference on Education and Peace, and asking also for the subscription fee and certain donations. It was resolved that the Peace Committee and the Education Committee should answer the letter, that the subscription be paid, and the donation declined.

The Village Revival Committee presented its report, mentioning that for political reasons it had been obliged to close the Baalchmay center and establish itself at al-Munsif, and that it had opened a club there with a woman teacher instructing in handwork and sewing, and in reading for the illiterate. It then presented its budget, from which it appeared that it had spent the sum of 91 Lebanese liras, and it mentioned that donations to the value of 175 liras had come in. Mrs. Rihan proposed that special thanks be recorded to this committee for its activity, and likewise to Mrs. Victoria Dias and Mrs. Anissa Najjar for lending their motorcars twice to the project.

Finally the president of the said committee, Mrs. Rishani, displayed some of the club's handwork, and a raffle was held on one of the pieces, won by Mrs. Shawqi, president of the Child Welfare Society of Tripoli. Before the meeting broke up, the Political Committee, the Committee on Publicity and Publication, and the Orthodox Hand-work Society were asked to give a report on their work at the following meeting.

Recorder of the minutes