The ladies of the seminar, from left to right: Nakkash, Fayyad, Tadros, Kaddoura, Malik, and Qaranful.
Woman stands before a decisive stage...
The destiny and future of the Lebanese woman will be decided after this stage... Will she prove her existence, and demonstrate that she is fit to exercise the political right she has won?... Or will she draw back and shrink into herself, as she lived for generations past?.. The question rises everywhere: in the clubs, in the salons, and in the shops...
The men ask: will woman go into the coming battle with us?.. And in the street the same question makes the rounds... So what does woman say?
It was a quiet morning gathering at which the seminar of The Woman's Voice convened in the salon of Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura, president of the General Arab Women's Union; and the members of the seminar were the ladies: Alice Nakkash, Eva Malik, Janette Tadros, Ni'mat Qaranful, and May Fayyad.
The subject of the seminar was laid on the table for discussion: what is the Lebanese woman's stand on the coming elections?? The hostess of the seminar was the most enthusiastic of them all, and she said:
Kaddoura: We want woman to bring in renewal and reform by entering the Chamber, and we hold her above being bought and sold.
Nakkash: You are entirely right... but can she bring in this renewal under the present state of affairs?
Kaddoura: I recall a remark I once heard, the gist of which was that if the women united to elect a certain person, his success would be assured.. And this time, what is to prevent woman being elected, to encourage her — even if we do not expect the men to elect her, she being a new element... Then there are those who say the coming elections will be on a party basis; if that proves true, it becomes the women's duty to band together to elect a woman candidate of their own.
Tadros: I think that before we take up the matter of the elections, we must attend to education — I mean civic education — so that woman does not remain exposed to buying and selling.
Fayyad: I believe we are late on the subject of education: it was our duty to begin back in 1952.. from the time we obtained our electoral right; and I point to our ladies on the Municipal Council —