You Were Born to Fly Professor Mariam Faik Al Sayegh, Icon of Generosity & Woman’s Deputy written by Ambassador Shady AlTaher, Secretary of the Foundation for the Development of Arab Creativityتحلق

السفير شادي الطاهر أمين مؤسسة تنمية الإبداع العربي يكتب
"إنه قدرك أن تُحلّقي، يا نائبة المرأة بروفيسور مريم فائق الصايغ "
 
 
You Were Born to Fly Professor Mariam Faik Al-Sayegh, Icon of Generosity and the Woman’s
Deputy."
written by Ambassador Shady Al-Taher, Secretary of the Arab Foundation for Creativity Development
 
"Destined to Soar Icon of Grace and Giving, , the Voice of Women."
 
It Is Your Destiny to Rise , Trailblazer and Women's Advocate."
 
"Soar Onward, Icon of Compassion , the Woman Who Represents Us All."
 
"It is your destiny to ascend, O Advocate of Women, Professor Mariam Faik Al-Sayegh,"
 
"Mariam belongs to a family woven from thought and resistance. She is the granddaughter of
Naseem Al-Sayegh, the thinker who founded in 1955 the school of 'Reviving the Intellectual and Cultural Civilizational Heritage for Advancement,' which served as a platform for thought until it was closed by the forces of extremism in 1975, under absurd double charges: promoting atheism and preaching Christianity simultaneously.
 
In 2000, while she at university,
Mariam launched the Secularism Creators Association, to serve as a living extension of free thought. Then, in 2001, she founded the Arab Foundation for Creativity Development and revived the school that had been forcibly closed, reopening its doors to creators, exceptional children with extraordinary abilities, the marginalized, and the silent.
 
Her father, Faik Al-Sayegh, the son of the great thinker, was a pillar of support in this journey, sharing her vision, thought, and struggle, until his assassination in 2011. Despite this great loss, she did not break. Rather, she continued
and still does today
with the steadfastness of nobles and knights of values, waging intellectual battles against darkness, marginalization, and disguised discrimination.
 
It is my honor to present to you her book, 'Deputy of Women,' in review, where she wrote:
 
'I have never been one of those who applaud the quota system; I have always seen it as an admission of our inability, as women in Arab societies, to engage in the political arena with competence. It's as though we need a seat forcibly granted to us by the law, not from the womb of struggle and merit!!'"
 
"I have never been one to applaud the quota system."
 
With these words, Professor Mariam Al-Sayegh began not just a book, but a clear stance. She does not speak about her role as a transient woman in a political scene, but as a true advocate for women in their most fundamental sense. She is a representative for women, a fierce opponent of human trafficking, and an active defender of human rights, striving to restore the dignity of humans to its rightful place for all of humanity.
 
With this bold statement, Professor Mariam Al-Sayegh began her book "The Women's Representative". She is a writer, novelist, poet, entrepreneur, community development expert, and the Dean of the Academy of Creativity. But before all that, she is the granddaughter of the thinker Naseem Al-Sayegh, who founded a platform for renaissance and intellect, before the hands of darkness tried to uproot it in 1975 with absurd accusations: "Spreading atheism and preaching Christianity simultaneously!" These accusations reflect the chaos and fear of intellectual thought.
 
In 1975, the school was closed after an assassination attempt on thinker Naseem Al-Sayegh in an elevator, and her father, Faik Al-Sayegh, was prevented from exercising his political rights. Despite this suffering, the Al-Sayegh family did not break. Instead, Professor Mariam Al-Sayegh revived the School of Cultural, Intellectual, and Civilizational Heritage, and founded the Arab Creativity Development Foundation to protect innovators and children with exceptional abilities, such as those with autism, the deaf and mute, and orphans.
 
Those who joined our foundation became beloved figures, ambassadors of creativity, and brilliant minds. Professor Mariam El-Sayegh established for us numerous charitable, developmental, tourism activation, educational, cultural, and creative initiatives, as well as philosophical programs aimed at instilling an unfailing love, a refined etiquette of life, and the fundamentals of noble, unique, and lofty ethics.
 
We believed
and with us believed
the politicians, civil society activists, and intellectuals who are members of our Arab Creativity Development Foundation, that religious plurality should be a source of human enrichment, social advancement, and human progress, not a cause of division, conflict, exclusion, or marginalization.
 
We united around sublime, noble, and uniquely high human values. Thus, we founded the Secular Creators Alliance for Interfaith Dialogue and Understanding, and the Arab Creativity Development Foundation, which seeks to build a world that embraces religious and cultural diversity, where diversity is a source of richness, mutual understanding, and a reinforcement of inclusive citizenship, creative development, sustainable peace, and spiritual solidarity.
 
The foundation operates locally, regionally,
and internationally to promote education by developing curricula that foster coexistence and inclusive citizenship, offering research and studies on religious and cultural diversity and its management, contributing to the development of policies that support pluralism and social justice, and in the field of media, by producing civilizational media content that upholds the values of understanding, coexistence, and the rejection of hate speech. In addition, the foundation has been building international community networks since the year 2000, enhancing solidarity and cooperation across all
 
Professor Mariam Al-Sayegh launched educational programs, books, booklets, publications, periodicals, and the magazine Creativity, followed by Arab Creativity Magazine, along with seasonal and annual journals, as well as radio and television programs, including:
 
Dialogue with the Other
 
Theatre Beats
 
Etiquette of Love
 
Etiquette of Life
 
Life Taught Me
 
We also founded dozens of initiatives for dialogue, promoting creativity, tourism development, benevolence, love, education, and intellectual engagement. Among the most prominent was the first initiative of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa:
 
“Ambassadors of Creativity”,
which aims to foster dialogue and the exchange of creativity and ideas among children of the world, instilling values of love and dialogue, providing comprehensive information about freedom of religion and belief, and enhancing cooperation among individuals and organizations working in this field
so that we may become a voice rising above the noise of conflict, bombardment, and war.
 
She was joined by her father,
the maestro, guitarist, and distinguished philosopher
Faik Al-Sayegh,
a scholar in comparative religious studies and philosophy,
in every dream, thought, and stance
until his assassination in 2011.
Yet what was extinguished there was never extinguished in his daughter's heart.
 
Despite the hardships she faced, and what befell both her father and grandfather, Professor Mariam Al-Sayegh went on to publish dozens of philosophical and enlightenment books, lead intellectual battles against human trafficking, and author many books fostering creative thinking and liberating minds from the grip of darkness.
 
She has continued the path of her grandfather and father , and to this day, wages intellectual battles against extremists, impostors, and falsifiers.
Her bold discourse
fortified with intellect and documentation
has become a powerful weapon against disguised discrimination under the banner of “empowerment,”
and a source of pride for us, as well as lessons we learn from as students in the school of thought she has founded.
 
Professor Mariam Al-Sayegh... a descendant of the ever-burning torches of thought,
and the mount of the unyielding word.
She speaks and publishes
in a world that shows no mercy to thinkers and opens its doors to empty slogans,
Mariam Al-Sayegh chose the longer path:
to build a society that needs no quotas,
because women in it reach the forefront through intellect and competence,
not through legal exceptions.
 
She wrote, she founded,
she fought with work, development, and grassroots projects before words
planting in her programs and initiatives the seeds of
"a love that never fails,"
"the etiquette of life,"
and "the unique and noble ethics of elevation."
She opened the doors of philosophy and literature
to young faces once considered marginal.
 
And with all this, she never rode the horse of institutional gratitude.
Instead, she confronted the “quota system” with courage,
calling it disguised discrimination in the name of empowerment.
She said it plainly:
"I don’t need a seat to be granted to me
but a field to cultivate,
an idea to build,
and a space to rise within
because I deserve it, not because the system pities me."
 
Her struggle
was never merely rebellion against the system,
but a cry against those who reduce women’s presence
to numbers, statistics, and fake “support” programs.
In her view,
women’s empowerment does not come through a law that adds a line to the constitution
but through a culture that rebuilds the human being.
 
She waged her intellectual and philosophical battles
against the forces of extremism and takfir,
just as her father and grandfather did
but with more diverse tools:
the word, the institution, the initiative, education,
the power of reason and persuasion, and the charm of beauty.
 
In all of this, she was not merely a representative of women,
but a representative of value in a time when values are collapsing,
a representative of humanity in a moment when the human being has been reduced to a voting number,
and a representative of thought in a world that understands thought only as a threat to be contained.
 
Should we give quotas their due?
Yes, but only as a temporary remedy for a deeper ailment.
As for Mariam Al-Sayegh
she never needed a quota,
because she wrote her name in ink that cannot be erased:
the ink of struggle for meaning.
 
Mariam Al-Sayegh... a representative who emerged from the quota to write the constitution of dignity.
"I was never one to applaud the quota system,"
she declared—not after her political tenure, not from afar,
but from within the halls of power,
where chairs are tempting and titles are comforting
yet she chose truth over comfort, authenticity over status.
 
Mariam Al-Sayegh was never a silent parliamentarian sitting in a women’s seat granted by quota;
she was a woman who thought, challenged, wrote, founded, and led.
A literary figure, novelist, poet, community development expert, entrepreneur,
Dean of the Academy of Creativity...
But above all: a free woman
devoted to thought and action,
laying the foundations for freedom through every act.
 
To her, the quota was not empowerment,
but constraint in a pink disguise
not justice, but a cosmetic cover-up for a continued injustice that must be confronted, not dressed up.
 
She wrote while serving as a representative of women,
and she refused to be a false witness in a system that only believes in women’s capabilities
if the law forces them forward.
She left politics willingly,
not because it is futile
but because it was not a path to truth.
 
She wrote:
“From my perspective, parliamentary representation is not a marketplace for personal gain,
nor a tool for acquiring authoritative privilege.
It is a moral embodiment of the principle of public trust
a service not measured by seat count but by the depth of impact on people’s lives.”
 
And so, she chose to serve through civil society
without struggles over chairs of power
believing that creativity and social work are not fortresses for self-preservation,
but bridges to protect the vulnerable:
(children on the autism spectrum, the deaf, the mute, orphans,
and gifted individuals with exceptional abilities who have no voice amidst political noise).
 
She wrote:
“Elections in their current form are a game unworthy of those who believe that principles are not for sale,
values are not for purchase, and rights are not granted by the logic of the powerful,
but earned by the logic of those most deserving.”
 
“The quota, imposed by the authority of reality, is not a triumph,
but a temporary fix forced by a long-standing failure to realize the principle of political equality!
Despite their beautiful preambles, Arab constitutions have failed to do justice to women in practice!
Parliamentary seats still bear witness to the absence of genuine female representation
even though women make up half of society, if not more.”
 
She said:
“In the face of such absence, quotas may be necessary,
but they remain a wound in the fabric of justice
a wound that will not heal without radical cultural reform,
not through superficial legal cosmetics.”
 
Her writings have become a gentle yet profound voice of rebellion,
and her stances, a steadfast defense of the human being not of women alone.
She does not fight masculinity, but fights discrimination, regardless of its disguise.
She does not attack religion, but opposes those who exploit it.
She does not destroy values, but plants them in her curricula, her programs, and her initiatives.
 
She transformed from “a quota parliamentarian” into a legislator for the future
outside the system.
She rebelled against the laws to write another kind of law.
 
And she says with pride:
 
“Dignity is not granted. Power is not handed over.
Justice is not an item added to a constitution
it is a collective conscience that must be reshaped.”
 
In a time when many have abandoned thought in pursuit of a seat,
Mariam Al-Sayegh, the representative of women, abandoned every ambition
to liberate and nurture thought.