Sawt al-Mara — page 35

For half a century or more the Lebanese woman has been in continuous struggle.. Her demands are many, her aims are lofty, and her spirit is greater than all that crosses her path... She drew up her plan of defense and followed it — deliberate, patient, silent — until at last she was able, in the least time imaginable, to reach her highest goal.

At the beginning of her constructive movement, woman was still deprived of most of her rights, foremost among them learning... Learning in those days was permitted to the man alone; as for the girl, this subject was no concern of hers, because learning, in their eyes, corrupts morals and opens before the girl many horizons... horizons that our forefathers of old considered a door to vice and emancipation.. So they shut her within four walls and forbade her the enjoyment of the charms of nature and the charms of life, and enjoyed these things themselves alone. But the revolt of those emancipators was stronger than everything that opposed it, and so the girl was able to enter school and to drink her fill from the overflowing springs of learning..

The first problem ended, and the girl came forward with intense desire to obtain learning, and registered an unequaled victory in this field. But the crisis was not over; the problem returned to its beginning. Hardly had the emancipators laid down the mighty weapon of the first battle when they began to make ready for a second — a battle stronger and more perilous than the first; nay, more truly and rightly to be feared than the first.

Yes, the girl felt the importance of her existence, and sensed the necessity of her work and

her struggle, with awareness and understanding; she wished also to understand the questions of her country, its problems, and the difficulties in which it flounders. She wanted to be a constructive individual.. an individual at whose will the country rises, and at whose will it falls back... So she resolved to enter the university — and how hard was the word "university," or the word "specialization," in those black ages, in those days gnawed through and through by fanaticism and filled with idle tales and superstitions...

A renaissance without parallel.. a blessed movement which woman undertook, and in which she triumphed; and this victory of hers was recorded in the register of existence, because she was confronting a mighty power with that very weakness of which they used to accuse her.. So she applauded her victory, and laughed the loud laugh of the victor after long toil and weariness.

It was a mighty step in the history of woman. The girl entered the university carrying a self-esteem,

an ardor, and a desire beyond imagining, because she believed in the importance of the message she bore, and believed in the necessity of her existence in the national being. Therefore she was able to reap the fruit of her aims swiftly, and these efforts of hers were able to bear fruit, because she did not enter the university, and did not seek specialization, for amusement and play, or so that it might be said of her that she was specialized — as our girls do today. Perhaps this single point is the one I have wished to root out, for I have grown weary of these absurdities that I have heard and seen from some of our girls who have knocked at the door of the university...

Woman's aim in entering the university was not, in truth, to specialize for her own sake; it was not her aim that people should say of her that she was specialized, nor did she think of such silly things. She wanted to specialize in order to carry out the message entrusted to her, in good faith and devotion, with guidance and awareness; and so she reaped the fruits of her aims. And those victories which the women of that era recorded are victories the girls of today would find it hard to equal; and whatever progress and renewal we see in our present time, we remain indebted

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