Julia Dimashqiyah's Medal to Be Given to the First Woman Orator in Parliament

At the family gathering at the home of the late Badr Dimashqiyah, to which the Lebanese Women's Union issued invitations on May 15, 1947, to celebrate the pinning of the gilded Lebanese Order of Merit upon the breast of Mrs. Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah—and after speeches given in turn by Mesdames Ibtihaj Kaddoura, Shafiqa Salam, Nazik Sarkis, Salwa Mahmasani Moumina, Anbara Salam Khalidi, Muneera Shehadeh, Rose Shahfa, Christine Rizk, and Nadia Dimashqiyah—all paying tribute to Mrs. Dimashqiyah's merit as teacher, as journalist, and as oratress—the word of thanks fell to Mrs. Salwa al-Sayyid, daughter of the honoree. But the mighty spirit within Mrs. Dimashqiyah denied the body its weakness and rebelled against it; and before these outpouring emotions, in this atmosphere saturated with love and devotion, Mrs. Dimashqiyah launched forth, improvising splendid words, giving thanks, going on... And Mrs. Dimashqiyah closed her historic speech with the following:

"I wish my husband and my children to regard this medal as a temporary trust, which they shall hand over, after me, to the first Arab woman to mount the orator's platform as your representative, and the representative of the women of the nation, in the Chamber of Deputies!!"