In its issue of today, An Nahar newspaper spotlighted two celebrated women from Lebanon, Anbara Salam Khalidi who founded the first women’s rights association and Dr. Saniya Haboob, the first woman MD in the country. Anbara, the eldest daughter of Salim Salam, decided at 15 to follow her philosophy about the freedom of her female peers. In March, 1914, she, and a group of girls, were successful to set up the first feminist association in Lebanon under the name, ‘The Awakening of the Young Arab Woman’. The primary objective of the association was to encourage girls to follow up their higher education through provision of the necessary financial and moral support. Anbara toured many Arab countries campaigning for women's liberation and wrote a series of articles urging women to fight for their rights under the Ottoman Empire. Haboob, on the other hand, was the first Lebanese woman to leave her country to study medicine. She entered the American Junior College, (formerly BUC and today known as LAU) In 1925, but her distinction helped her to join the AUB’s Medical School. After receiving her MD degree from Western University, Canada, Haboob moved to the University of Philadelphia to specialize in gynecology. In 1932, she returned to Lebanon and opened a clinic in Bab Edriss, old downtown Beirut providing free medical services to women. (An Nahar, January 30, 2019)
