The Women's Body at Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association held its annual iftar banquet at the Al-Kawthar complex and Al-Sayyeda Khadija Al-Kubra Mabarrat - airport road, in the presence of women's social, educational, cultural and media figures.
The celebration began with verses from the Wise Remembrance, then an artistic segment presented by girls from Al-Mabarrat, then a speech by the member of the Women's Body at Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association Loubna Al-Husseini. Afterwards Allama Sayyed Ali Fadlallah delivered a speech in which he began by pointing out that “woman has always been, and will remain, the first to take the initiative for the sake of serving people and raising them up. She does this because God, glory be to Him, created her moulded of love, mercy and giving without reckoning; mercy in her is not something incidental but part of her constitution. Reality bears witness to woman's giving, which does not stop at particular limits but widens to encompass the whole of society - for just as she is the heart of the family, she is the heart of society.”
He added: “We need woman's effort and her role, in the shadow of the reality we live, where corruption and deviation are taking root, the level of violence and crime is rising, and social blights are multiplying - in an age in which strifes are meant to enter our reality, to tamper with it and, as a result, to turn us into scattered shreds. What is happening around us of violence and killing is witness enough to that.”
He held “that offence against woman or the diminishment of her dignity does not stop at the limits of the direct offence against her; rather it is a diminishment of society's role and its effectiveness and a threat to the future, of which she is the basis of the structure - indeed it is one of the greatest of crimes”.
Fadlallah praised the role played by many women when they transcend all this suffering and injustice they live and bring up and raise generations, despite the lack of appreciation they meet with. “Blessed are the mothers who make strength out of weakness.”
He called on woman “to strengthen her presence within her house in her relations with her children. This does not mean that man should be far from them or unconcerned with them; he is concerned and responsible first of all. But we know that in general no one carries this concern except the heart of a woman.”
He added: “We also call on her to qualify herself further for this role, which is no longer an easy role in the shadow of the harsh challenges facing our generations, who live in a clamorous media climate that sends contradictory messages carrying good as well as evil, and that plays a role in building and rising up as well as in demolition and dissolution. This requires all of us, and especially the mother, to be present and qualified intellectually and psychologically to guide towards the right path; and in that way the house will turn into a safety valve and a protection from most of the problems we suffer from in our reality.”
Fadlallah pointed out that “society loses some of its energies when it sidelines woman from political or developmental affairs, so that her role remains limited to social affairs. We see no presence for her worth mentioning in parliament, in the cabinet, in the municipalities, or even in the parties or the associations, so that she may speak about women's rights; and if she has a role, it is marginal to man.”
He said: “The imbalance we see in this presence is not due to a deficiency in her energies or her capacities, but to prevailing customs that we work to free ourselves from, or to unjust laws that we must work to change.”
He affirmed “that we shall continue to stand with woman in her struggle and her work to attain her legitimate rights, and we call for that at the jurisprudential, legal or political level. We hold that the one concerned with defending women's rights is not woman alone; rather it is everyone's responsibility - the responsibility of the jurists, the lawyers, the politicians and the civil and community associations - to defend her rights: her right to give her nationality to her children, and her right to custody, which we affirm according to what our research has arrived at. Here we call on man, even if custody remains in his hands, to give it up for the interest of the children, for their interest comes first, and their interest is to be with a compassionate mother who is more careful of them than anyone else.”
He held “that the most prominent thing the enemies work at is bringing down woman - this great defensive fortress of the homeland and the nation - into the trap of consumerist panting, and deluding her that absorption in meeting the market's aesthetic standards in body and dress is what grants her strength and presence, even though in this absorption there is an usurpation and enslavement of woman's personality, a marginalization of her effective role in society and a call to make her absent in mind, thought and spirit”.
