Here is the Lebanese woman, active like the man, making ready for the coming electoral round. Among the harbingers of that activity was the great oratorical gathering held by the League of Women's Organizations in Lebanon in the UNESCO hall on the afternoon of Monday, May 13 last, on "The Elections in Lebanon and Woman's Role in Them."
The gathering was opened, in the name of the League of Women's Organizations, by Mrs. Eva Malik, who welcomed those present and set forth the idea of the gathering and the aim behind it, saying:
"This gathering is not an electoral rally, nor is it propaganda for anyone; it is rather a lesson for the citizen who is searching in good faith for his duty and his responsibility in the electoral circumstance through which we are passing. The League of Women's Organizations hopes to extend this guiding activity of its to all the regions of Lebanon, so that the Lebanese woman may play a noble part in her new choice, after gaining a right for which she struggled long years, and so play her role as elector and as elected in the fullest manner."
The first speaker was Mr. Muhyi al-Din al-Nsouli, who gave a sketch of the history of parliamentary elections, ending with their present progressive stage, which has granted woman the full right of the vote; and he called upon her to exercise this right and to avoid the errors that man has never ceased to commit.
Then Mr. Fouad Rizk spoke, surveying parliamentary life in Lebanon in the light of its latest development in the era of independence.
The final round belonged to Mrs. Laure Moghaizel, who delivered a measured, well-directed address, some phrases of which we excerpt for our readers. She said:
"We want the woman citizen to feel, before all else, her responsibility, and so to step forward and perform this duty, and not add to the number of the negligent, the selfish, and the indifferent."
"We want her to free herself from illusions: the illusion that says a certain thing will never change, and the illusion that says authority cannot be resisted, and that the results of the election hang upon its direction."
"We want her to free herself and to bring about a revolution of the spirit, restoring standards to their sanctity and values to their rightful truth. Money is no measure of men and of reformers, nor does inheritance pass a seat in the Chamber from Zayd to the son of Zayd — we want the woman to free herself, to refuse all those disgraces, and to refuse to keep silent about what the conscience condemns and the right casts out."
"And if we strive for woman's arrival at the parliamentary assembly, we strive before all else for the arrival of the fittest and best of the citizens, be they women or men."
"Just as we strive for the arrival
of the best and fittest among the women themselves, for it is by the first women's representation that the whole of the women's movement will be judged."
"As for winning a seat in the Chamber, it is not the final aim of our struggle; the true success lies in the victory of principles, and in the bearing of witness. So may the women of Lebanon hasten to champion principles and ideals, and be, in the coming elections, a witness for the right, a witness for values, a witness for man!"
The luncheon of Mrs. Loris Boustany — wife of the deputy Emile Boustany, one of the proprietors of the Contracting and Trading Company and head of the Reconstruction Department — was confined to the fair sex, and gathered bouquets of ladies of the diplomatic corps and of refined society, who assembled around her well-laden table in their splendid mansion in al-Barza.
That was at noon on Tuesday, May 14 last; the air was perfumed with the fragrant spring flowers with which the premises abounded — and the atmosphere was made all the fresher by the abounding graciousness the lady of the house showed toward her guests, at her side her charming daughter, Miss Myrna.
The hand of death claimed in Beirut a radiant and noble figure and a righteous mother: the late Bahia Moghabghab Haddad, wife of Mr. Fares Antoun Haddad, on the morning of Sunday, May 5. People came in streams to offer their condolences to her husband and her children and to share their grief and pain. She was borne in procession to her final resting place in Ain Zhalta.
May God grant her rest in His spacious gardens, and inspire her family with patience and solace.