An Appeal from the President of the General Arab Women's Union to Woman, on the Occasion of the Annual General Meeting

We meet today at your invitation, ladies, and out of a sincere desire that expresses the understanding, cooperation, wisdom, and devotion in your lofty souls. This meeting of ours is nothing but the manifestation of a truth that declares your aims, and the close union and true sisterhood contained in your principles — a sisterhood that bears love and good to all and watches over the general welfare, so as to preserve the glorious heritage and guard the dignity of a nation by which we are known and which is known by us.

Ladies: I see the necessity of having a register for our Union in which we gather our resolutions, to remind us that they were laid down only in answer to a pressing need or a necessity that removes some harm. While I was reviewing the resolutions we adopted in the past, my attention was caught by the third clause of the resolutions of the meeting of the General Arab Women's Union at Aley on July 25, 1950, which provides for the endeavor to create understanding, spread peace, and strengthen fraternal relations among the Arab countries. And I said: how worthy we should be to return to this resolution, and how much we need to volunteer and perform this fraternal duty — above all in a time whose sky has clouded over, whose air has thickened, and whose notions have fallen into confusion, so that the Arab world is passing through a grave crisis, and the sister countries are each withdrawing into their own sanctuary, forgetting or feigning to forget the sanctity of neighborliness, the tie of kinship, the rights of brotherhood, and the holiness of covenants, and treating the issues of the hour in the light of private interest, heedless of a common enemy who is stationed on the borders and lies in wait for us. Yes, ladies, every one of the Arab countries has its own aims and its own interests, but we must not ignore the importance of the general welfare, or the common welfare, since it makes us a force before the common enemy who threatens our security, our peace, and our stability. Here is woman's field: she can play an important part in creating understanding and strengthening fraternal relations among the Arab countries, with the tact and grace with which she is naturally endowed; she softens the atmosphere, smooths the way, calls for purity of heart and soundness of intention, and works to clear away obscurity and ambiguity, so that good and concord may prevail.

No doubt the authorities have their measures and their orientations; they have their judgments and they have their justifications, and they may settle the disputed points of view among the sister countries so that the causes of this estrangement, which has reared its head among them of late, disappear — but only after discord among brothers has grown grave and coldness and repulsion have prevailed; and in this is a rending of our interests, a scattering of our unity, a destruction of our nationhood, and a falling behind the caravan of civilization and progress.

So, my Arab sister: whether you have obtained your political and civil rights or have not yet obtained them, you enjoy a natural right that is not confined to the ballot boxes and is not bound to any place or time; and you possess a human voice which you send into the air free and unfettered, seeking good for all and calling for the general welfare; you possess a moral force, a firm creed, and a steadfast faith in your right to life. You are the message of truth in this existence: give freely of the wisdom that streams from you and of the gentleness and tenderness with which you are endowed, and make of your motherhood an impregnable shield that protects brotherhood, guards the sacred bonds, and spreads tranquility and stability.

To you, ladies, go the thanks of the Permanent Bureau of the General Arab Women's Union, together with my own thanks, for having given us this happy opportunity and gathered us together. I wish you a pleasant stay in Lebanon and success in your mission — the mission of true sisterhood, love, and loyalty.

President of the General Arab Women's Union