They Speak of Woman: 1 — Woman in the Agricultural Field

The agricultural engineer and expert to the courts, Mr. Fouad Najjar, sets forth in what follows the actual condition of the Arab woman in rural life, and offers sound practical proposals on the possibility of profiting from woman's activity and talents in the rural field, and in agriculture in particular.

Woman in the Agricultural Field

I did not wish to broach this important subject until after I had observed in the Lebanese countryside many anomalous matters closely bound up with the life of woman in the countryside, and through it with the life of rural society itself; and after I had become certain that woman cannot enjoy any right, be it political or social, until she plays, in the broad milieu in which she lives — I mean the Lebanese countryside — a great role that will bring her easily to the far-reaching goals toward which her sister in the city is now striving, along a thorny road crowded with problems and difficulties and beset with dangers.

Those who now carry woman's banner are no more than a strong battalion of our educated, aware ladies dwelling in the cities, well versed in many aspects of Lebanese life, yet ignorant of most things about the life of their sister in the countryside. It is only just to acknowledge that, despite the small number of our ladies working in the field of the struggle for their rights, the work they have done from the beginning of their struggle until today has been astonishing and great in its results. And I believe that this struggle, which for woman amounts to a holy war, had for its first result a great victory; yet final victory in it may not be written for woman unless all the great forces latent in every district, every village, and every rural Lebanese family are mobilized for it. The work of an individual, or of a few individuals, however lofty its aim and however great its importance, cannot be relied upon to bring about a total overturning of worn-out, deep-rooted conditions unless the majority is enlisted to take part in it consciously and to assure its success.

How precious is woman's presence in the Lebanese countryside! She is the symbol of all its activity; she is the symbol of diligence, gentleness, and nobility of character — and, alas, alongside this, a symbol of ignorance, backwardness, and blind obedience. Is not woman an element of stability in the countryside, checking emigration from it, keeping the landowner on his land and the peasant on his farm? Have not our young men, on many occasions, grown eager to emigrate from a Lebanon barren in their eyes and to go to the lands of the Mahjar, where they imagine abundant bounty and plentiful livelihood — and was not woman, in the end, the sole means of their remaining where they are, active workers begetting their pride of sons, drawing their sustenance in bounties from the earth, enjoying the sight of their kin, and living with them their sweet village life? Is not woman in the countryside a helper to man in his varied, arduous agricultural labors, sharing a portion of his toils in a manner deserving admiration and appreciation? Do we not remember the 'late lamented' silk season, whose precious yield was the fruit of woman's efforts almost alone? Have we not seen in the countryside men whose want of manliness and substance reached the point where they squat in their houses sipping coffee and trading talk to kill their time with matters that may concern them or that sound taste would spit out, while their women are in the field performing labors whose harshness makes the assigning of them an unforgivable crime??

It is natural that woman in the countryside, being man's partner, should undertake many labors by which she helps her husband in this life weighed down with hardships and cares, joys and sorrows. But the work she does must accord with her natural qualifications and capacities, for we cannot ask of woman exhausting bodily labor: she was not created for work of that kind, and she has qualities of her own — patience, deliberateness, strength of will, adaptability, and a sound mind — that fit her for work nobler and more fruitful than bodily labors of limited results, which lower woman's standing in her society and do not accord with the dignity and respect that we men owe to the partner of our life and our favored half. If the village woman today performs, in her

house and her field, labors that wear out the body, wither youth, and hasten the end, it is because she has received in her life no learning that would allow her to exchange these labors for other, easier ones, and because, by force of the harsh circumstances of her society, she has not yet passed from the bondage of ignorance to the freedom of knowledge.

When we think seriously of reforming our beautiful countryside, it must not slip from our minds that the improvement of woman's condition and her education is a vital foundation of that reform, and that man, however lofty his culture and however varied his knowledge, lacks many things if circumstances allot him an ignorant wife who is a burden upon him instead of a help. The field of rural work lies wide open before the educated working woman, for in it she will find many labors suited to her situation, in which she will succeed as no man can rival her. But bringing woman to this degree of learning demands a great and sustained effort within a wide-ranging, many-branched project embracing daughter, mother, and grandmother, to be carried out by way of the permanent school in the village, by way of continuous guidance through resident and traveling instructresses, and by way of lectures, meetings, and varied practical demonstrations. And who is worthier to attend to these matters than the many women's institutions in Lebanon gathered under the banner of the League of Lebanese Women's Organizations, which must go forth from its narrow, theoretical civic struggle into a wide field of practical struggle — the fertile Lebanese countryside? In this countryside the educated, aware woman can join hands with the intellectually and practically advanced man to furnish the ignorant woman with some of the basic knowledge necessary for carrying out many productive agricultural projects that accord with woman's bodily and mental capacity. And here I shall mention below some of these practical projects which the rural woman can undertake.

First — Modern beekeeping

This pleasant project is of recent date in our country despite its many benefits. It was taken up at first by a handful of amateurs, then developed into serious work by which some Lebanese families now make their living; but it remains on a narrow, unnatural scale, for the country needs a large quantity of honey, and the extension of beekeeping will secure this need for us; and because bees pollinate the blossoms of our trees and contribute to increasing our harvests of fruit. This beekeeping, though it requires but modest capital to undertake, so that any citizen could practice it, is in my view a woman's occupation in the first degree: for woman, by virtue of her calm and the gentleness of her nature, can understand the instinctive traits of the bees and accommodate their ways — within what the modern art of beekeeping prescribes — in a manner gentler and more fitting than what the bees know of man's ways, and she can thereby take an abundant harvest of honey. And it should be noted that work of this kind does not continuously take up the time of the one who performs it, for it is done at intervals and on scattered occasions that do not consume all of a woman's time — which allows her to undertake it alongside her other household and agricultural work.

Second — Raising chickens.

This too is a pleasant work that calls for woman's quiet effort — and who is worthier of it than our educated women, especially since these gentle birds, which see the light and are reared according to the logic of modern science, apart from their mother, need tenderness from her in whose hand lies the wellspring of tenderness, love, and affection; thus these precious animals will be raised in a model, economical way that brings benefit to her family.

Third — Combating insects and plant diseases:

Combating agricultural pests has become an important part of the peasant's work in his field. This combat has very precise scientific principles and methods, requiring alertness, quickness of thought, and constant watchfulness — and who is more capable than the woman versed in these methods of carrying out this vital work with complete precision?

Fourth — Agricultural industries:

And what could be easier for the woman in the village than carrying out this important project? Its raw materials are already at hand; what she lacks is knowledge and machinery. With simple guidance we can secure the knowledge for her, and she herself, at trifling cost, can buy the machine.

Fifth — Caring for livestock.

Sixth — Undertaking various handicrafts,

and other labors besides, in which the rural woman plays her great role, raising her standing by them and becoming, thanks to them, a great material and social force, joining with the force of the woman in the city to obtain woman's full rights.

In the solution of the problem of woman in the countryside lies the secret of woman's success in all her other endeavors.