Dr. Anis Barakat Baz — The First Lebanese Woman Doctor, Practicing Medicine in Beirut for Fifty Years!

Why she studied medicine: ... We are at the close of the nineteenth century, and here is a bouquet of dear girls studying at the English school. One of them approaches a companion whose eyes are brimming with tears:
— What is the matter, Fatima?
— My mother is sick...
— Fetch her a doctor...
— A doctor... when she is a woman?
— Then fetch a lady doctor!
— Do you suppose we have women doctors?

That night our girl did not sleep. She lay on her bed in the dark, lost in dreaming: Why should I not study medicine? How wonderful if I were to become a doctor! And Anis Barakat was still thinking and reckoning... when the face of morning appeared!...

Where to study medicine?: She looked about with ambitious eyes in every direction and found the doors of hope shut... The institutions of higher learning in Lebanon could not yet stomach the idea of mixing the sexes, least of all in the field of medicine. And there were those who doubted woman's very capacity even to enter that door... How powerless she was — a meek girl — to persuade them otherwise and to erase their doubts!! She turned her great hope toward the West... "In America is the launching-place of my hopes," she said, "but how am I to travel alone?!" The young girl smothered her dreams in her breast and waited patiently — or it was as if the fates willed to serve her, for one forenoon she found herself sailing in the company of a sister of hers named Martha, whom her husband Constantine Makna had summoned to join him... That was in 1901.

In America: In the New World, after a year of searching, the young Lebanese woman set down her baggage in Detroit, Michigan. There she spent four years devouring her studies and commanding the respect of her fellow students, who elected her class secretary and delegated her to represent them at the congress of university students... And the university gave her a scholarship for one year in recognition of her excellence and diligence. In 1905, Anis Barakat mounted the platform, her head held high, her heart and eye dancing... Behold, her dream come true!! Here is the diploma of medicine in the grip of her hand!!

... And there was a second night she passed in sleeplessness... It is the restlessness of great souls... it is her ambition widening... her little head ringing with sweet hopes!!

Specialization was a must: She buttoned her white gown, rolled up its sleeves, and forgot herself in the flood of learning, adding to her experience and knowledge... She moved from hospital to hospital, between New York and Philadelphia, and at last, one day, announced her readiness to return to her homeland and serve its children... She was the first Lebanese woman doctor... She specialized, naturally, in women's medicine. Had not her coming been, from the very beginning, for that end?! And she went back again in 1923, after her marriage, for another year of specialization in Paris.

Over and above all this, Dr. Anis Barakat wished to stand alone in something, so she also specialized in "Homio Pathitique" — that is, treating chronic diseases by medicating their symptoms — and she won wide fame through this specialty, unique of its kind...

Here she is at last in Beirut: We are with her again in Beirut in 1907, director of the Saint George Hospital for four years, after which she moved to her private clinic, where she examines patients and prescribes treatments to this very day... Her activity extended beyond Lebanon; she was summoned to Egypt, Syria, and Iraq... and to this day patients come to her from the Arab countries...

In the social field as well: Alongside her work in the clinic, Dr. Anis Barakat gave her attention to medical congresses and took part in a number of societies, among them: the "Physicians and Pharmacists" Society, the "Lebanese Medical" Society, the "Lebanese Order of Physicians," and "Combating Tuberculosis"; she was also a member of the Syrian Scientific Academy, the Red Crescent, and the International Academy at San Lan... Here she is, throughout the first half of this century, speaking at congresses and writing in the press on scientific and social affairs... No wonder, then, that the American University of Beirut adopted her and counts her among its graduates!

The "Truthfulness" society: ... It was she who conceived the idea of founding "Truthfulness" societies in girls' schools, to urge the girls toward uprightness and honesty — a girl's first capital. She donated the prizes for each of the schools: "Nur al-Hayat," the "Greek Orthodox school," and the "Three Moons" in Beirut, and "al-Sirat" in Aley. Of this last it is told that the girls who won the "Truthfulness" prizes were quickest of all to find "bridegrooms"!!... Here too Dr. Anis had merit — and what merit!...

She pushed her sister to study pharmacy:
The flame of her enthusiasm went so far that she spurred her sister Zahiyya Barakat to study pharmacy in the United States, and she returned in 1928 with a diploma in pharmacy and analysis, and with practical experience from the two Americas, to open in Lebanon two pharmacies still standing today — one in Beirut and one in Dhour el-Choueir... A second pioneer for woman, then, Zahiyya Barakat, enlightened by her sister's guidance and drawing on her strength...

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The story of her marriage: They met in 1907, as the two speakers at a gathering of the "Shams al-Birr" society.

Her subject was "Electricity and Medicine," and his was "I Have No Endurance"... After the gathering she congratulated him on the strength of his vocal cords, while he was directing his sight — and his insight — to something farther and deeper than her cheeks rich with color, her blond head, and her confident womanliness — many qualities that drew the elegant young man Jirji Niqula Baz to the proud doctor, great of soul, far removed from any love of show... He began inventing reasons to be in touch with her: he belonged to the "Combating Tuberculosis" society, and she supplied them from Saint George Hospital with a nurse to treat the sick in their homes... Their acquaintance opened out, day by day, into understanding and affection, and at last they were married in 1915...

Among the charming things told of them is that they filled the period of their engagement with translating the memoirs of the Roman Emperor "Marcus Aurelius!"

"My marriage to Dr. Anis," says Mr. Baz, "settled firmly in my head the theory that had haunted me since the dawn of my youth — I mean woman's fitness for every good thing. We never collided in our practical life; I encouraged her to practice medicine, and she encouraged me in letters. My good fortune in marriage strengthened my confidence in woman, and I am her champion for life." (1)

The fruit of their marriage is two sons: Iskandar, an official in the Ministry of Public Works, and Niqula, an engineer at Beirut International Airport...

The woman who does not grow jealous!: Rarely has any man had such contact with the choicest class of women as "the champion of woman" — he is always "with them!"...

(1) May God prolong the days of our venerable Ustad!!

And oh, the wife who does not grow jealous!! "A confessor of sisters" — a phrase she would repeat to anyone who tried, in pettiness, to stir her jealousy; and she walks with brow held high, affirming her confidence in herself and her elevation above the poisoned suspicions that turn a wife's paradise into hell...

What a lofty example to be followed Dr. Anis lived out in the souls of our women of letters.

In 1901 she inspired Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah, who wrote in the newspaper "Lubnan," addressing her shortly after her departure for America to study medicine: "Blessed are you! For you have opened the door of learning before the daughters of my country" — and this was her first venture into writing!

And Salma Sayegh came, a quarter of a century later, and dedicated to her the first fruit of her letters, "al-Nasamat," saying:

"To dear Anis,
walking swiftly toward the summit of human perfection,
lighting with her radiant spirit the path of the 'apostle' of our women's struggle —
to the woman who taught me to serve with love and knowledge, I present this book."

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... There is no doubt that the Lebanese woman has raised for the renaissance, in the last half century, a lofty edifice... And does not the first credit belong to the one who laid the first course of stone??
It is a gracious gesture for the Lebanese government to grant Dr. Anis Barakat Baz the gilded Order of Merit after fifty years of unbroken service in the field of medicine!