The Patriotism of Salma Sayegh

She came forth with the dawn, and her eyes were brightened with its light; her lips parted in the smile of life and of all the hopes and dreams it carries in its folds. Her gaze wandered through the expanses of the world, following the golden threads of the sun as they thrust through space to rout before them the armies of darkness that had been encamped over our world. Whispers and murmurings and sweet words of liberty and independence caressed her ears, finding a welcome echo in her heart. She felt in the depths of her soul an insistent desire to seek knowledge, to unveil the mysteries of the universe and the secret of existence; and she set upon it, drinking from its springs as deeply as she could find the way, until she had gathered so ample a share of it as placed her in the front rank of sincere workers. She formed for herself a general culture that lit the road before her, and it marked her with a pure civic and political education to which she held, and for which she worked, all her life.

Our dear departed dreamed of a homeland proud and free, to which she might belong and in which she might take pride, after seeing her homeland groan for no short time under a heavy yoke of servitude and foreign occupation. And scarcely had she begun to hope for a change from a wretched, despotic era — one that would deliver the homeland from the weight of its yoke — than she was stricken in her hopes and dreams of attaining what she loved, seeing her homeland fettered anew, groaning under another yoke no less cruel and no lighter in its weight than the first. So she began to send forth cry after cry in the face of the mighty colonizer, her resolve never flagging, letting no opportunity pass without seizing it to protest the injustice of the unjust and the rulers' recklessness with the interests of the country and its people. Here is an extract from a precious and daring letter which I was shown. She had sent it to Monsieur Besnard, secretary-general of the French Secular Mission in Paris, being at that time a member of the teaching staff of the Secular College. She said, in substance:

"I asked you, when we became acquainted at a private meeting, to be the link between us and the French, because their policy will turn those Lebanese who cling most tightly to France and rely most upon her into her greatest enemies. We know here all that you are doing for us there, and it grieves me to see your good will in serving us collide with the policy of your country, represented by a handful of exploiting, opportunist men who wrong France as they wrong Syria and Lebanon. They are impoverishing us materially — a loss for which compensation may perhaps be found; but for the loss of your good name no compensation can be hoped.

I beg you to forget for a moment that you are my superior and I your subordinate, just as I hope that I and many friends may still look for a return to understanding through you and through your companions. And I, in my capacity as an Arab lady who dreams of liberty, address myself not merely to my superior, but to an apostle among the apostles of liberty.

The opposition in Lebanon is graver than they imagine, and I shall burden your shoulders by sending you some of the newspapers, that you may learn from them to what point despair has reached in the souls of this people, who placed their trust in you and hung their hopes upon you."

And she closed her letter with these words: "My plea to you is that you do not forget my country."

Thus we see that our dear departed never forgot her country for a single minute; rather, the care that filled her heart and occupied her soul was to work for its liberation, to raise its standing, and to defend its rights, though she anger whom she might among the men of influence and power.

Salma was certain that homelands do not gain independence and flourish, nor enjoy their pride and sovereignty, save by relying upon themselves, and that liberty is not given but taken; just as she was certain, too, that nations do not rise from their stumbles save by rearing their people in a patriotic, civic education purged of every fault that mars our common body. She understood that fanaticism, poverty, ignorance, disease, feudalism, chaos, the flouting and violation of the laws, and selfishness — that no nation has been afflicted with these plagues without its fortresses being razed, without being led down to the watering places of destruction and made an easy morsel for every wicked coveter.

To the delivery of this vital message Salma dedicated her precious life, and she threw herself, with all the learning, energy, and experience she had been given, into fighting these defects in us, waging against them a relentless war in every time and place. She made of her platform in the school a means to plant in the minds of the young, beyond the lessons of culture, precious lessons in true patriotism — a patriotism founded on respect for order and law, on love, tolerance, and equality among the classes, and on sacrifice for the sake of the homeland and its children.

And she took the platforms of oratory, the press, and the women's associations as further means of spreading the call to those high ideals which the nations of ancient root have taken as the measure of true civilization.

Nor did Salma's efforts stop at the bounds of education and instruction; they passed beyond into wider and more general fields. She called for the adoption of an economic policy resting on a sound scientific basis, and turned her care to this vital side of the country's life; for she was certain that a state which has no economic policy founded on a scientific basis, balancing its imports against its exports, will never be granted a proud, stable, long-enduring life, but will remain threatened with poverty, humiliation, and decay.

Therefore she joined with a noble company of the ladies of Lebanese society, and we founded the "Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah" Society — to fight women's illiteracy first, and to encourage the national industries second. She spread the word for those industries and worked to protect them from foreign manufactures by every means possible in those days; she mounted numerous exhibitions to acquaint people with the national manufactures and endear them to them; and hers was the abundant credit for their flourishing, for the effort she expended and the hardships of travel she bore within Lebanon and beyond it to attain that noble end.

Ladies and gentlemen:

Such was Salma's patriotism — a positive, constructive patriotism whose substance was knowledge, reason, sincerity, and steadfastness. In her patriotism she followed the way of the living nations in what they take as the foundation of their strength, their sovereignty, and their independence.

Ah, beloved Salma!

It was granted you to see your beloved homeland freed of its enslavers, taking its place among the proud, independent nations; yet you left this world with your hand upon your heart in fear for it, because it was not granted you to see it freed of all its faults and delusions, cleansed of its diseases and plagues. You passed from our sight with a lump of grief in your heart and a tear in your eye, fearing for it in its weakness and its ignorance. And yet, Salma, you have left behind you an army of your pupils, your companions, and your friends, who watch over it, who work by your teachings, who follow in your traces and carry on your mission of building this dear homeland, that it may be for us and for our children after us a source of security, comfort, and dignity. Your memory will live in our hearts as long as we live.

May God deal as generously with you in your death as you dealt generously with your homeland in your life, and reward you with the best reward He gives to those who do good.