Anbara Salam Khalidi was a Lebanese feminist, translator and author, who significantly contributed to the emancipation of Arab women.
Early life and education
Khalidi was born into an eminent Lebanese family in Beirut in 1897. She was the daughter of Salim Ali Salam, a deputy in the Ottoman parliament and a merchant, and the sister of former Lebanese prime ministerSaeb Salam. Two of her brothers served as cabinet ministers of Lebanon. In 1913, during the First Arab Congress in Paris. Khalidi, along with two other women, sent a telegram to the congress. This telegram was the first message that was read aloud. She received a modern education and learned French. She and her siblings attended the Anglican Syrian College in Ras Beirut, which is the predecessor of the American University of Beirut. From 1925 to 1927 she studied in the United Kingdom. with King Faisal I of Iraq in Richmond Park in London in 1925, along with Salim's son Saeb Salam and daughters Anbara and Rasha. Anbara can be seen wearing an elegant cloche hat and a mid-calf skirt, contrary to prevailing social conventions in Beirut at the time.
Activities
After returning to Beirut, Khalidi joined the pioneering women's movement called Society for Women's Renaissance. She worked there on advancing women's role in society and politics, on encouraging national Lebanese products of textiles and fashion, and on establishing schools for women and advocating for women education. In 1927, Khalidi was invited by the American University of Beirut to speak about her time in England. Her speech was called "An Oriental Woman in England". Once she got on stage, she removed her veil. She was the first Muslim woman in Lebanon to publicly abandon the veil. She was the first to translate Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid into Arabic. Her memoir was published in 1978 with the title of Jawalah fil Dhikrayat Baynah Lubnan Wa Filastin. It was translated into English in 2013 under the title of Memoirs of an Early Arab Feminist. In her memoir, Khalidi emphasized the negative effects the activities of Jamal Pasha, Ottoman ruler of Syria, had on her family and her childhood. In the book, she extensively talked
