A radio sitting with Miss Samira Azzam, supervisor of the Woman's Program at the Near East Station, presented by her colleague at Radio Lebanon, Edvick Jureidini Shayboub.
At half past four every afternoon the radio set brings us the voice of one of our announcer colleagues at the Near East Arab Broadcasting Station, saying "The Woman's Program." What is this program? And what is the aim of setting aside half an hour daily for women's programs? This is a question I put to myself before the supervision of the woman's corner at Radio Lebanon became my charge, and I recall that I believed, within myself, in the necessity of such a program's existence, and of its running daily if possible; but the station's circumstances do not at present permit more than this weekly corner. There is, however, a sister station, the Near East Station, whose means have allowed it to present the Woman's Program daily...
It was a surprise to me last week to meet a dear guest and a broadcasting colleague who holds the position of supervisor of the Woman's Program at the said station. I wished for a sitting to bring us together around the radio, to which a bond of familiarity ties us both, and I proposed that the atmosphere of the sitting be purely a broadcasting one, so that most of the talk would turn on the mission of radio with respect to woman.
I present to you, madam listener, our guest and colleague Miss Samira Azzam, and I ask her:
Q: Do you believe, as I do,
Miss Samira, that the Woman's Program is a necessity for every broadcasting house?
A: That, at least, is what the broadcasting houses themselves believe... otherwise they would not set apart a special corner for woman. The birth of the Woman's Program at the Near East Station, for example, goes back six years... and from that day the men in charge have kept up presenting the corner daily... I personally believe in its necessity... for what concerns woman particularly may not appeal to the male listener... and there are, besides, certain talks of a purely feminine cast for which a special section must be set apart.
Q: Do you believe the program should stand alone... that is, be composed as though it were a comprehensive program?
A: To a certain extent, yes. In laying out the plan of the Woman's Program we take account of two considerations: the first is that this daily half hour is in the nature of an independent women's program, which must include everything apt to open the horizons of true life before the Arab woman, while concentrating its attention in the first degree on what is purely feminine and which the general program does not provide her.
Q: For example?
A: For example... talks on child-rearing, women's medicine, fashion, beauty care, the kitchen, and news of women's activity... unless, of course, matters should be turned upside down, and woman go out into public life... and these things become the specialty of men...
Q: While woman takes to parliament and the bench...
A: And smelting iron and driving tramways.
Q: Very well, and what is the second of the two considerations?
A: The second consideration is that the corner is a part of a whole that brings the listener varieties of culture, enjoyment, and diversion. Woman can therefore find in the whole what her daily corner has not room for.
Q: Cannot a man, for instance, find in your program something to please him?
A: Of course... there are many general treatments that interest both sexes. And that is why you see us present the Woman's Program with our traditional phrase, "Ladies and gentlemen"...
Q: Do you believe, Samira, that the Arab broadcasting houses have succeeded in performing their mission?
A: This question of yours is exceedingly sweeping and embarrassing... so allow me to go a roundabout way in my answer... I will say that some of them are still below the level required of an institution that plays a primary role in directing public opinion and educating the masses; and the listening public may have their share of the responsibility, and the fault of the shortcoming may come back to them...
Q: What exactly do you mean?
A: I mean that the broadcasting houses present what they believe the public relishes... not what the public actually relishes...