The Woman's Word: The Congress of the General Arab Women's Union

The Woman's Word

... On the seventh of this month, the congress of the General Women's Union convenes in Beirut — the third of its kind in the history of this institution, and shining proof that the Arab woman's word has been gathered under a unified leadership, working in solidarity to treat her private and public causes in the light of science and experience... It is likewise proof of a comprehensive awareness that has swept over the woman's heart after a long slumber, so that she stirred, and realized that her hoped-for renaissance will not be accomplished except through union and through sincere cooperation that seeks the good of the Arab woman first and last...

... On the seventh of this month there meet in Beirut, in perfect affection, the delegates of the sister Arab countries, their satchels filled with information and statistics; and on the agenda stands a number of public lectures, which indicate that the Arab woman no longer works and thinks without wise direction, but has come to know what she wants, and why she wants it. She is well aware of the dangers threatening the family — her little kingdom — and of the ill effects those dangers produce, which are reflected in the various departments of her life and paralyze her growth and progress toward catching up with the caravans of civilization...

The Arab woman has the right to pin broad hopes on this congress, for it is a benign occasion for rapprochement and understanding, and for studying the common problems from which woman suffers in every Arab country, and which she is powerless — alone — to solve in the fullest manner... But experience has taught us to look upon these congresses with a questioning, doubting eye, especially since the subjects of discussion are wide and varied, impossible to master in their entirety within a few counted days... And I fear, moreover, that the congress's resolutions and recommendations will come out so dense and so ramified that it will prove impossible to apply even a single clause of them!

Protecting the family and raising its level, fighting illiteracy, reviving the countryside, wiping out unemployment, encouraging national products, lifting the customs barriers between the Arab states, political and civil equality, vocational schools for girls, prison reform, vagrancy, and the protection of juveniles — each of these subjects is weighty and valuable, and touches woman's life at the very core. Yet a certain doubt steals over me as to whether these subjects will receive their due of thorough grasp and exhaustive study, and, consequently, whether they will have any share of fruitful practical success. And I am certain that had the congress's higher policy chosen to limit the subjects and confine them within a smaller circle, saturating them with study and scrutiny, it would stand more assured of reaching its goal..

If the congress took, for example, "protecting the family and raising its level" as its principal subject, there would branch from it woman's equality with man, political and civil; and the discussion would touch upon the questions of divorce, polygamy, equality in inheritance and in family allowances, and the other matters that restore balance to the family and spread tranquility and well-being...

A thorny road is most safely crossed in stages. As for rushing to storm it all at once, that brings us either to excess — or to nothing!...