With Mrs. Heneni Tarcha

"The Woman's Voice" has passed, in its editing, through a number of hands, and has carried a number of supervisory committees; yet one name only has remained its faithful companion throughout the ten years: the Responsible Director, "Heneni Tarcha." And Heneni Tarcha is the president of the Lebanese Women's League, who has striven to the utmost of her powers, and given her devotion to the very last of it, at the head of an elect company of our ladies, to affirm the existence of the "League" and to carry its projects through to the goal —

Even so, this is the first time Mrs. Heneni Tarcha has been presented to the readers of "The Woman's Voice"!

— The Editors —

When the editor-in-chief entrusted me with the task of getting in touch with the president of the Lebanese Women's League, Mrs. Heneni Tarcha, she confided in my ear the difficulty of the mission... "Mrs. Tarcha does not like this stir raised about her person; she is quiet by nature, inclined to shelter under the banner of silent, fruitful work"... And I set to thinking how to go about obtaining what I wanted, and what other readers, men and women, wanted too.

So I resorted to a ruse... and got in touch with Mrs. Tarcha... a visitor wishing to make her acquaintance... any objection??... Do you know, my reader, for what hour she set the appointment? One o'clock — she uttered the time while apologizing for the shortness of her leisure!

The maid led me into an elegant reception hall, along whose sides were ranged sumptuous velvet couches, with blossoms scattered here and there, as though spring had insisted on entering houses by their doors and into their very reception halls...

She came toward me overflowing with vitality and good cheer, as though the lady had not passed her twentieth year. But had you contemplated that crown of pure white that wreathes her head, you would have thought her walking gently along her way into the sixth stage of life — with all the dignity and gravity that stage carries.

She sat down beside me in welcome, and was quickly astonished when her eyes caught the paper and pencil my hands were toying with.

I put the first question... the answer came swiftly... and I gave my hostess thanks for her kind readiness...

— When was the Lebanese Women's League founded, and how?

— The Lebanese Women's League was founded in 1943, in the wake of that blessed leap which the national leaders scored in the face of French colonialism... The idea went round in the heads of some of our ladies, and I was one of them... and that was the seed of the Lebanese Women's League.

— Since when have you been president of the Lebanese Women's League?

— Since its founding.

— And does the League's constitution allow that?

— The constitution provided for the election of a president of the League once every two years; but that clause was afterwards amended, and the phrase "and she may be re-elected" was added to it.

— What works does the Lebanese Women's League carry on?

— There are great permanent projects that the League works to execute and realize, and there are also occasional projects, arising according to circumstances and occasions... The League's great projects are: the "Lebanese Women's League Kindergarten," and then the magazine "The Woman's Voice," the only women's magazine in Lebanon.

As for the projects we have called occasional, they are, for example: the committee for combating illiteracy; then the committee for combating prostitution; then, when the high cost of living grew severe in Lebanon, a committee was formed to combat it; and when people cried out against the filth and refuse, a committee arose from among us working for the cleanliness and beautification of the city, and so on...

Moreover, the League has the competence to undertake all works apt to prepare public opinion for the service of Lebanon...

— Can you tell us something about the League's two principal projects?

Here Mrs. Tarcha began telling me of the pleasure a person reaps from a visit to the League's Kindergarten — that kindergarten which gathers in children of all ages and all communities, and which does all in its power to build their characters, develop their gifts, and advance their capacities and aptitudes, that they may be the best of builders of the nation's edifice in the future... The Kindergarten now has a fine building of its own in Ghobeiri, comprising a complete elementary school.

— And what of "The Woman's Voice"?...

— "The Woman's Voice" is a voice dear to all hearts... a voice that struggles to the death and fights at any sacrifice to prove its existence, its competence, and its worthiness... And it has proved, thank God, that worthiness and that competence, thanks to those who send it forth loud, bold, eager, and active... And if I give my opinion of "The Woman's Voice," it is as a reader, not as president or supervisor... There is no doubt that The Woman's Voice performs its mission in the best of manners... only I hold it against the magazine that it pours itself into the literary vein and neglects the engaging social vein which pleases all classes alike and is not confined to the cultivated class alone... I hope the editor-in-chief will not hold this passing remark against me...

Mrs. Tarcha consulted her watch... and I understood that she had an important appointment or an urgent meeting... So I took my leave and departed, wishing I had some of her energy, vitality, and activity...