I recently joined a Facebook group for Middle Eastern business women, and one of the very successful ladies voiced her opinion regarding being greeted as “beautiful lady” as opposed to addressing her as smart and successful.

It immediately made me feel sad.

Someone doesn’t know us, and still calls us beautiful. And our argument is “how do they know we are actually beautiful”? This attitude towards one of the greatest words in the dictionary is why there is such low self esteem and self confidence among Arab women. And I was wondering: why is this word being thought of as a word only used for looks?

We are all beautiful on the inside regardless of the outside, and regardless of the fact that there are women who do not find themselves beautiful on the outside  There is so much self confidence generated from women lifting each other and supporting each other by using the word beautiful, which is a great, great thing to be.

Strong is beautiful. Smart is beautiful. And in my humble opinion, nothing is more superior than beauty. You see, this term in itself is being looked down upon. Beauty is, as I stated earlier, the greatest thing one can be. When we already know we are all successful and we do not need other people’s approval of that, it feels great to be called “beautiful” and to acknowledge that one has a beautiful soul, above all other achievements.

Also, when a complete stranger calls you beautiful, it means they are beautiful themselves. They are tolerant, open-minded and have a beautiful soul.

Once we overcome the mental obstacle and open up to the “beauty” of this word, the words we utter will be ever more powerful, the strength we feel and self-confidence we have will be tenfold, and level of grace and intelligence in which we approach anything in life will be limitless.