Resolutions of the General Arab Women's Union

General Theme of the Conference

The protection of the family and its advancement in health, economy, and society; the Women's Union in each country is to study the various problems and the most effective means of achieving this purpose, giving priority in its study to the subjects of greatest importance in its local environment.

Curbing the Misuse of the Sharia in Marital Relations

First — Curbing the chaos of divorce, so that it may take place only out of necessity and with the permission of the judge, in accordance with the texts of the Sharia.

Second — Prohibiting plurality of wives except for a necessity recognized by the Sharia.

Third — Presentation of a medical certificate before marriage.

Fourth — Demanding the enactment of legislation guaranteeing compensation from the husband in case of divorce.

Fifth — Demanding that custody of the child be given to the fitter of the two parents, and that the age of custody be extended.

Sixth — That the mother have priority in guardianship over her children in case of the husband's death.

Protecting the Health of the Family

First — The conference recommends that the Arab states draw up a long-term plan to multiply centers for the care of mother and child, until their services reach all families in village and city, this project to be given priority among the other health projects.

Second — The conference recommends that the local women's unions demand of their governments that expectant mothers who are employees and workers be granted a leave of not less than six weeks at confinement, at full salary, this not to be counted as part of their sick leave.

Third — The conference recommends that the local women's unions intercede with factory owners and with governments to open sanitary day nurseries and kindergartens for the children of women employees and workers.

Fourth — Working with governments to draw up a long-term plan to bring pure, sterilized water to all villages.

Fifth — The conference recommends the opening of special courses to train technicians to work in these projects with success.

Reviving the Countryside

First — Establishing social centers intended to raise the cultural and agricultural level, the local home industries, and the health and social level.

Second — Working to establish and strengthen cooperative societies to supply the peasant with money, implements, and seed, in order to facilitate the working of the land and the marketing of his products.

Third — Distributing state lands to non-landowning cultivators and generalizing small holdings, on condition that the above-mentioned cooperatives be generalized.

Fourth — Drawing up a long-term plan for wiping out illiteracy, so as to arrive at compulsory rural elementary education.

Fifth — Requesting the appointment of women social guides for the countryside in the Ministry of Social Affairs, drawn from the women's organizations concerned with rural affairs.

(a) Directing man and woman toward industry and agriculture.

(b) Creating a market for village industries.

Seventh — Creating industrial and agricultural vocational schools for boys and girls.

Eighth — Creating health centers for guidance and prevention, increasing the number of physicians, and then securing their livelihood so as to encourage them to work in the countryside.

Ninth — Demanding that governments improve communications and pave the public roads.

Tenth — That the reform of the countryside be carried out at the charge of the citizens, not of foreign projects.

Advancing the Family Economically

First — Improving the major industries and expanding them in the form of national joint-stock companies, to curb industrial monopoly.

Second — Safeguarding the rights of the worker by working for the application of labor legislation in the Arab countries.

Third — The necessity of equal wages for the two sexes for equal work, in proportion to the local standard of living.

Fourth — Encouraging national products:

(a) by holding exhibitions of them;

(b) by the patronage of men and women alike;

(c) by increasing the duties on foreign products whose like is manufactured in the Arab countries;

(d) working to improve national products and to watch over their prices.

Fifth — The patronage of national products by governmental and private institutions.

Sixth — Cooperation of the Arab women's unions with the offices for the boycott of Israel, to tighten the economic blockade upon her.

Seventh — Expanding the commercial markets:

(a) by lifting the customs barriers among the Arab countries to secure economic unity;

(b) opening new world markets, provided that our commercial relations rest on a basis of reciprocity.

Vocational Schools and Juvenile Reformatories

First — Generalizing vocational schools in the cities and villages, as suits each environment among them.

Second — Generalizing institutes of social service in all the Arab countries.

Third — Generalizing juvenile reformatories, the women's organizations to have the right of supervision over them.

Fourth — Applying the law concerning the working age of the juvenile.

Fifth — Establishing social bureaus to watch over juveniles and guide them.

Sixth — The necessity of having women among the judges in the juvenile courts.

Fourth — Requesting that work be made easy for delinquent juveniles after their release from the reformatory institutions, so as to preserve them from returning to delinquency.

Education and Instruction

First — Compulsory education, in which people and government share.

Second — Censorship of motion-picture films; the Ministry of Education to concern itself with bringing in cultural films.

Third — That the governments give special care to technical and vocational education, and increase the cultural clubs and the centers for combating illiteracy.

Fourth — The Arab governments are requested to assist the establishment of universities in the Arab lands deprived of them.

Fifth — Introducing a program of household management into the curricula of the elementary and secondary schools, and teaching the social sciences in all their varieties.

Sixth — Our governments must select worthy men and women teachers, of good character and sincere patriotism.

Seventh — Increasing the salaries of men and women teachers to a degree equal to their sacred task, and encouraging a respect for them commensurate with the sanctity of their task.

Eighth — The conference recommends the nationalization of schoolbooks and the exemption of pupils from paying their price.

Ninth — That the foreign schools be subject to the law of the Ministry of Education.

Tenth — Encouraging the formation of circles between parents and educators.

Eleventh — Working to preserve our nationhood by rearing the young generation in love of the soil of its country, in the development of its wealth, and in its preservation.

Political Resolutions

First — Demanding that the Arab states recognize woman's political right in full.

Second — That the woman employee be paid the family allowance on a par with the man, if her husband is not an employee.

Third — Demanding the application of collective insurance.

Fourth — That woman and man of equal qualifications be equal in holding public and administrative posts.

Fifth — Sending telegrams to the Arab governments that have recognized and signed the Charter of Human Rights, which imposes equality between man and woman, to work for the application of the texts of this charter in their countries.

Sixth — The local unions shall undertake to resist any attempt to settle the refugees outside Palestine, and shall ask the Arab governments to set up units of residence for them in the places adjoining their country — wherever they may be found — and to prepare for them the ways of an honorable life, in protection of their dignity and safeguard of their morals, by establishing agricultural and industrial projects and by aiding them and encouraging them to produce.

Seventh — The necessity of strengthening the forces on the Arab-Israeli borders to ward off the continual aggressions from the enemy's side, and pressing the Arab governments to carry this out.

Eighth — Supporting the Arab governments in their stand against peace with Israel.