El Masry receives the \"Medal of Stability\"

Lady Fatima El Masry of Lebanon won the "Medal of Stability" for old members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in recognition of her membership and struggle in the party for over 50 years, and for her adherence to its principles after she took an oath to be engaged in it since 1951, at the time where the entry of women into political parties and partisan activities was considered a strange phenomenon about the nature of Lebanese women. It was not difficult for Mrs. El Masry, 77, to enter this world, then, because of her strong personality and faith in righteous issues which her father believed in. He was a man of religion whose origins came from Iran before her moved to Egypt and then to Amel mountain in the south of Lebanon. In addition, her husband, the party's secretary Mohsen Haidar, added to the depth of her personality as well. She stood by his side in the most difficult circumstances, especially that he was close to the founder of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, Antun Saadeh, and the one whom she grasped a lot of knowledge and ideas from. Mrs. El Masry narrates to "Arabs today" some of her paths and struggles along with a man who believed at that old time that women had and should have an active role in society, and he opened the door for her to be that. Although she gave birth to seven children she was able to help him in many issues, including political and social ones. She recalls an important incident in her life that took place in 1961, which was called "Year of the coup;" when the Syrian Social National Party was accused of preparing for a coup in Lebanon. "My husband was taken to jail because of his membership and activities in the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and his relationship with the leader, Antun Saadeh. However, because of my intensive actions and the relationships that we made with a lot of influential people, I worked hard to get him out of jail within a few hours, at the time were it was very difficult to do so especially under the supervision of the intelligence of all our actions, phone calls and the meetings that were taking place secretly in our house," She said. "In 1967, the year of the purification of the party members from public administrations, my husband paid the price at that time for belonging to the party as he was forced to leave his job at the Ministry of Public Works. I stood beside him at this difficult time and we challenged all the pressures together and the hardships of life, especially the economic ones for years with a family of seven children. After that we traveled to the UAE between 1974 and 1981, where my husband worked in the field of contracting, construction and engineering but we never forgot the struggle path to protect our national social path and Antun Saadeh's ideologies." In response to a question on how she was accepted in a men's world back then, she said: "the confidence of my husband in women and their role was a key factor in this. He taught me a lot and I used to attend many meetings with him including secret ones that were held in our home with a lot of comrades, in addition to watching the activities of the female comrades in the party who have worked hard to prove women's political and developing role in the sixties of the last century." > She explained: "women in the party took an active role since its establishment where they stood side by side with men in all the various stages of the social national struggle." She knew homelessness, prisons and detention centers, she also took local and central responsibilities," noting that "the party gave women the right to belong as well as men and the conditions set in Article IX apply to women and men alike." She noted that the history of the party was "full of thousands of mothers, wives and sisters of the party and its activists." On the day of her honoring Mrs. Masry took a look over the days that gave depth to her personality for over 50 years of struggle. She wished that her partner, who died in Iraq in 1999 in a horrifying car accident, was beside her to witness her life path, where she raised engineers and doctors from her home and passed over to them the patriotic way of thinking and carried a big legacy and the responsibility of following up with the struggle in addition to keeping the spirit of the belief and party affiliation alive, which made her truly deserve the "Medal of Stability" that was given to her at a ceremony in her home in the town of Bednayel in Bekaa, with the presence of the Vice-President of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party Tawfik Muhanna, the President of the Women's Renaissance Association Mona Fares, and a number of MPs and political, social and partisan figures. Mrs. Maha Haidar, daughter of Mrs. Masry gave a speech in her name emphasizing that the woman of nationalism, especially Mrs. El Masry, has refused to be a marginalized case at the time of difficult challenges. She became active and interacted with the values ??of truth, justice, as well as national and Arab dignity, quoting Antun Saadeh's phrase: "We have one policy when it comes to war which is to fight, as for our politics in peace, enemies of this nation must recognize its rights and renaissance."