and sound, to the secure shore.
I warn her against turning to look behind her, listening to the voices of the wailing ignorant — where lie laziness, slackness, disorder, extravagance, and want of frankness; against neglecting the affairs of her home and leaving it in the hands of the ignorant; against frequenting the gambling clubs now spreading everywhere; and finally I warn her against filling her time with empty visits that yield nothing but a fortune in gossip.
Miss Salam Khoury:
She has been influenced by French currents of thought, having lately taken her degree in France. She holds frank, unextreme views on the Arab woman, and has made her own efforts to bring her into harmony with the concepts of the conscious modern age.
1 — What pleases me in the contemporary Lebanese woman is her natural beauty, her intelligence, her endowments, and her innate aptitudes which, if polished and directed, would develop her personality and bring it out, would make her climb swiftly the ladder of civilization and progress and surpass all the women of the world. I am pleased especially by her devotion, her self-denial, and her obedience to her family, her husband, and her children.
As for what does not please me in her, it is the weakness of her personality, her want of self-confidence, her superficiality, and her dependence on others. She lives on the margin of life, contenting herself with a little of it, and amuses herself socially with trifling matters.
2 — The answer depends on the woman's conception of femininity. It is very difficult to define the meaning of femininity. If it is confined solely to attractive outward form, and to the weakness and dependence that certain circles find endearing, then work weakens these traits and labors to efface them... and the Lebanese woman has an ample share of them.
But if femininity is, as others understand it — and as I myself believe it to be — a collection of noble feelings and emotions proper to woman and natural in her... then work polishes these qualities, for it brings her
close to life and its tragedies, refining her sensibility, giving her experience, and increasing her culture; her horizons widen and her personality crystallizes, so that she becomes able to grasp the meaning of true femininity and works to develop it and bring it forth.
3 — I wish for her liberation from her fetters, and the struggle for its sake — and that it come by way of learning, conscious culture, and work. She must abandon this fear of life that dominates her, feel her responsibility, and go down into the fields of work. Earning her living is her road to liberation and independence, for it develops her feeling and gains her the endearing human qualities; thus she will refuse to be a commodity, and keep far from humiliation and servitude.
But she must not misunderstand liberty; she must use it well, and preserve certain lofty Eastern moral traditions and customs.
A self-made woman who cut her difficult path successfully through the family traditions crouching in the way.
Her balanced views, drawn from reality and from the influence of Anglo-American culture, she applies without fear; and she concerns herself besides with the modern
science of education, having taken her degree in it from the American University of Beirut.
1 — The Lebanese woman concerns herself with the affairs of her family and the happiness of each of its members, even after they reach full maturity; she always gathers together the old and the young, sacrifices her comfort, her happiness, and all her rights as a human being for the sake of her family; she denies herself and gives up not only her ease but even the safeguarding of her rights; and she is, without doubt, a wife faithful to the furthest limits of fidelity.
But the chief thing the woman lacks, even in our most advanced circles, is the education and culture that would enable her to direct her children well, making them useful members of society and good citizens — teaching them that just as they have rights in society, they also have duties toward its success.
2 — Woman's storming of the fields of work is a vital necessity for herself, for her family, and for her country; and women have proved that they succeed brilliantly in all