This article forms part of a three-part series examining Antun Saʿadeh’s position on women’s dignity. It draws on the author’s book, Syrian Women: Their Struggle in Society and Their Empowerment through the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.

Saʿadeh’s critique of women’s oppression extended beyond individual acts of abuse to the social structures that sustain them. He recognized patriarchy not merely as a cultural inheritance, but as a system of power that legitimizes violence, restricts women’s autonomy, and disguises injustice under the language of honour and tradition.

As documented in Syrian Women, violence against women in Arab societies takes multiple forms: domestic abuse, forced marriage, honour crimes, and legal discrimination. These practices persist not because they are hidden, but because they are socially rationalized. Women are portrayed as bearers of family honour, while men are cast as its guardians—entitled to discipline, punish, or even kill in its name.

Saʿadeh rejected this worldview outright. He understood honour as a moral and social quality, not a biological attribute attached to women’s bodies. To him, honour resided in justice, dignity, and respect for human life. A society that excuses violence against women while claiming to defend honour is, in Saʿadeh’s terms, morally incoherent.

What makes Saʿadeh’s position particularly significant is its refusal to accommodate cultural justifications for oppression. He did not treat patriarchal traditions as immutable or sacred. Instead, he subjected them to ethical scrutiny, exposing their role in sustaining fear, silence, and submission. For Saʿadeh, traditions that degrade women are not cultural treasures but social pathologies.

By linking women’s dignity to social health, Saʿadeh framed women’s liberation as an essential condition for national and civilizational progress. A society that relies on the subjugation of women cannot claim to be advancing toward freedom, unity, or renaissance. Oppression, in this sense, is not merely a woman’s issue—it is a structural barrier to collective development.