Abdallah El-Yafi
Encyclopedia
- "Yafi" redirects here. For the Arab village in Israel, see Yafa an-NaseriyyeYafa an-NaseriyyeYafa an-Naseriyye is an Arab local council located in the Lower Galilee, Israel. It forms part of the metropolitan area of Nazareth, also an Arab locality...
.
Abdallah El-Yafi ( - also transliterated
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
as Abdallah Yafi, Abdallah Bey Aref el-Yafi and other variants; September 7, 1901 – November 4, 1986) was the Prime Minister of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
12 times between 1938 and 1969.
Early life and education
Abdallah El-Yafi was born in BeirutBeirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
on September 7, 1901 into a Muslim Sunni family to parents Aref El-Yafi and Jamila Ostwani, a Damascene.
Raised with two brothers, he first attended Sheikh Abbas School, a Muslim elementary school, then "Pères Jésuites" (Jesuit Fathers), a Roman Catholic school, and went on to earn his French Baccalaureate Degree.
He pursued his advanced studies in law at the "Pères Jésuites" and earned a Juris Doctor.
In 1923, Abdallah El-Yafi enrolled in a PhD program at La Sorbonne University in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
from which he graduated in 1926.
El-Yafi's political involvement lasted throughout his school years. He was President of the Arab Students Association, and was militating in France against the French Mandate
French Mandate of Lebanon
The state of Greater Lebanon, the predecessor of modern Lebanon, was created in 1920 as part of the French scheme of dividing the French Mandate of Syria into six states....
which was then in place in Lebanon. He was known for organizing political demonstrations and giving fiery speeches, which once led to his arrest by the French Authorities only to be released a couple of days later.
Abdallah El-Yafi is the first Arab to receive a PhD from the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
University, where he wrote his thesis about women’s rights in Islam. The thesis subject was "The Legal Status of Women in the Law of Islam" . Drawing from Quranic decrees and Islamic principles, he made a case about how women are supposed to be allotted more rights in society.
Abdallah El-Yafi was known to be a man of strong and correct principles, who believed that the empowerment of women was crucial for building a stronger society, equality providing a steadier base. These thoughts, when expressed in the 1920s, had quite an ‘avant-garde’ ring to conservative Muslim ears: they were not always welcome with wide open arms or minds. Later on in his political life, Abdallah El-Yafi’s political opponents brandished his thesis as a weapon of defamation to tarnish his reputation. According to them, he was not a “righteous Muslim” but a French minion who had given in to the French authorities—the colonial mandate authority in Lebanon at the time—in blaspheming the Islamic religion in reward of a “Doctorat d’État”. These were aimed at ruining the honest image that he so carefully cultivated throughout his life.
Personal life
On August 1, 1937, in Damascus, Abdallah El-Yafi married Hind El-Azm, a Damascene from one of the most prominent political families in Syria. Her uncle was Prime Minister of Syria himself. They have five children:- Ghada El-Yafi (born 1939), a physician hematologist, who ran for Lebanese Parliament in year 2000. She has one daughter: Hind Kaddoura fathered by Mohammad Kaddoura.
- Nahila El-Yafi (born 1942) is a physician ophtalmologist. Children: Tarek Al Hassan, Hisham Al Hassan and Zeinab Al Hassan fathered by Hani Al HassanHani Al HassanHani al-Hassan was a leader of the Fatah organization in Germany and member of the Palestinian Authority Cabinet and the Palestinian National Council. He was born in Haifa in northern modern-day Israel...
. - Aref El-Yafi, (born 1944) the eldest son, is an entrepreneur. Spouse: Joumana El-Yafi (née Noueiri). Children: Abdallah El-Yafi, Ghaith El-Yafi, Sara El-Yafi and Firas El-Yafi.
- Wassek El-Yafi (born 1946) is a physician cardiologist. Children: Jamil El-Yafi and Walid El-Yafi
- Ghias El-Yafi (born 1949) is an entrepreneur. Spouse: Leila El-Yafi (Née El-Azm). Children: Khaled Yafi and Tarek Yafi.
Political career
In 1933, for the first time, Abdallah El-Yafi ran for parliamentary elections in BeirutBeirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
. He waded through the process because a good friend of his, Khayreddin al-Ahdab
Khayreddin al-Ahdab
Khayr al-Din al-Ahdab was a Lebanese politician. In 1937, al-Ahdab became the first Muslim Prime Minister of Lebanon. He served as prime minister for slightly more than one year, from January 5, 1937, to March 18, 1938. Before this, he published a pan-Arab newspaper. He was a Sunni.-References:...
, was aiming for the same position. As the tension rose, Abdallah El-Yafi decided to step down famously stating "I will not sacrifice my friend for a parliamentary position".
Abdallah El-Yafi eventually went on to become Prime Minister of Lebanon twelve times. He was appointed Prime Minister in the government of every Lebanese President with the exception of Fouad Chehab because Abdallah El-Yafi was opposed to the idea of appointing a military general to the post of Presidency.
In 1947, Abdallah El-Yafi was appointed, alongside futur President of the Republic Camille Chamoun
Camille Chamoun
Camille Nimr Chamoun was President of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958, and one of the country's main Christian leaders during most of the Lebanese Civil War ....
, to the Lebanese delegation to the UN that voted against the division of Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
.
The last term he served as Prime Minister was in 1969.
In 1974, President of Lebanon Suleiman Frangieh
Suleiman Frangieh
Suleiman Kabalan Frangieh, last name also spelled Frangié, Franjieh, or Franjiyeh , was President of Lebanon from 1970 to 1976...
asked Abdallah El-Yafi to be the Prime Minister, he refused.
Women's Suffrage in Lebanon
The struggle to achieve equal rights for women was one of Abdallah El-Yafi's principal political goals. In fact, Abdallah El-Yafi was the main politician who lobbied for women's suffrageWomen's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
in Lebanon. Despite a growing voice of dissent among his political adversaries, El-Yafi was able to extend the ballot to women during one of his terms. In 1952, the cabinet of Abdallah El-Yafi voted for a new policy that allowed voting rights to women with an elementary education and a minimum voting age of 21.
The law came in effect for the 1953 8th Parliamentary elections and is still in effect today.
Integrity
In the civic education classes in Lebanese schools, students are taught a lesson on honesty and honor through the story of Abdallah El-Yafi whose integrity was constantly cited as an example for all young people in Lebanon:Abdallah El-Yafi was a young lawyer in October 1938, when then Lebanese President Emile Edde
Emile Edde
Émile Eddé was a Maronite Lebanese political figure. He served as Prime Minister of Lebanon from 11 October 1929 to 25 March 1930. He served as the President of Lebanon from 1936 to 1941. He also founded the Lebanese National Bloc party....
asked him to form a new government. During his tenure, he closed his law cabinet because he wanted to separate public services from private services. But after just 8 months in office, he decided to resign over a governmental policy dispute.
In the morning following his resignation, he woke up much earlier than usual and sat on the balcony meditating. His wife tried to console him for losing his premiership position. He famously replied: "I’m not worried about the premiership, but I’m worried about how to announce to you that I will have to cancel our telephone subscription for lack of money in my possession given the fact that my law firm has been closed for eight months and I am without clients." He is famous for having once said to a man who asked him to join a prolific business project "I would never even dare give the chance to the smallest villager in the most remote town to even think that I made a benefit of one penny".
Another story relates how a relative of his wife wanted Abdallah El-Yafi to grant him a license to build a tunnel in Dahr El-Baydar, an area in Mount Lebanon promising him a worthy profit. Abdallah El-Yafi told his wife "You either throw him out of my house now, or I will throw him down the stairs myself".
Death
Abdallah El-Yafi was diagnosed with Alzheimer's diseaseAlzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
at an old age. His sight got worse as he grew older, and therefore stopped reading, which let him degenerate further more into Alzheimer's. He died in Beirut, in his home, on November 4, 1986.