The League of Women's Organizations Meets on the Occasion of the Elections

No sooner was the news announced of the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, and the date of the new elections fixed, than the women's organizations called one another to hold a general meeting at which woman would determine her position toward this new event in her public life.

The League of Women's Organizations therefore called a general meeting, held on the ninth of the current month at the Cénacle Libanais, at which those present discussed the matters laid on the table on the occasion of the election period.

Mrs. Laure Tabet opened the meeting with a word in which she explained that the purpose of this meeting was not to create a women's bloc, so that woman should come out of this meeting with women candidates whom the women's organizations would be bound to support; rather, its purpose was to urge women to take part in these elections in the greatest possible numbers, so that woman might prove that she had indeed struggled to win rights which she would know how to exercise. She also called for the support of candidates of ability from both sexes, without any distinction between woman and man. Mrs. Emily Fares had earlier published a statement to this effect in most of the newspapers, denouncing the idea of a women's bloc.

And so this line of guidance prevailed over the atmosphere of the meeting, so that the nomination of woman by woman was set aside.

Miss Zahiyah Dughan, however, presented a proposal in the name of the Muslim organizations to nominate Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura; and a proposal had also been made to nominate Mrs. Laure Tabet, Ellen Rihan, Emily Fares Ibrahim, and others.

But the two proposals were not laid on the table for discussion, in keeping with the course adopted by the League of Women's Organizations, which forbids the creation of any women's bloc and any distinction between citizen and citizeness except on the basis of ability — although the names mentioned met with a strong welcome in the ranks of those present.

As for the disturbance raised by some of the Communist women, that is a familiar matter we see on every occasion.

Speeches followed in turn from Mrs. Laure Tabet, president of the League of Women's Organizations, Mrs. Ellen Rihan, Miss Nahiya Ghalmiyya, Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura, Mrs. Emily Fares Ibrahim, Mrs. Sophie Metni, and others; and the discussion turned on the necessity of woman's showing a deep awareness of the causes of her homeland at this stage.