The Women's Federation's Memorandum to the Speaker of the Chamber and the Deputies

To His Excellency the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and Their Excellencies the honorable Deputies.

The Lebanese Arab Women's Federation has a long-standing position which it wishes to renew, and its demand is a sound one which it hopes to see fulfilled. Behold, the nations, great and small—from Italy to France to Belgium and even Japan—have lately made man and woman equal, and have seen fit to do justice to half the nation, so that its forces may be equal in raising it up and strengthening it; so they passed the electoral law, and woman was given this right, to be an elector and elected.

As we follow the work of your esteemed Chamber, our attention was caught by the amendment of its present constitution before the year 1946, and we saw that the winds will favor our ship, which we hope will sail on with God's blessings in this session and prosper in its course, and that women will receive at your generous hands this right which they desire, so that they may contend together with their men against the storms of life and join hands with them in building and reform. Did not the head of your delegation—Lebanon's delegation to San Francisco—sign the Charter of the United Nations, in which it is laid down that man and woman shall be equal in political and civil rights?

Therefore, as we set this lofty aim before women, we cannot but rejoice and be glad, for we are certain that it will impel every intelligent girl whose natural gifts qualify her to continue her study and her progress, so that she may be worthy to assume this lofty position, in which she will serve her sister, her children, and her country with sincerity and zeal, and help her menfolk to establish order and arrangement in the works and in the matters that lie within her competence.

Therefore the ladies of the Women's Federation as a whole—numbering no fewer than thirty women's associations—hope that this cry of theirs will have its desired effect; and in your esteemed Chamber every thinking, educated man acknowledges in his heart of hearts the powers woman possesses, which, if turned to the good of the country, would add to its prosperity and its advancement.

We hope that our voice will find an echo, and that the seed we cast into your hands will find water to nourish it, so that it may grow and bear fruit; and yours, gentlemen, will be the first merit, in aiding woman, your sister, and history will immortalize your memory. Please accept our respects.

President of the Lebanese Arab Women's Federation