Miss Jacqueline Hakimian kindly complied with the wish of "The Woman's Voice" by putting to a fine, select company of the men of the law the two following questions:
1 — Do you believe that woman is capable of succeeding in the practice of the legal profession?
2 — Have you changed your opinion of marriage after having experienced it?
For all my welcome to the woman lawyer, I believe that the lawyer's profession demands a special attention which cannot be reconciled with the attention a woman owes to her family and her home. As for the second question, I am, praise God, married and happy in my marriage. Naturally, I was afraid before I ventured upon marriage; now, however, it is marriage that is afraid of me.
I welcome the ladies' coming into the law. Their entry into this honorable profession will increase their number at the Palace of Justice... its atmosphere will brighten and its sky grow clear; our colleagues the lawyers will attend the more eagerly to their cases and their troubles, and we shall find refreshment for our souls on the day we leave the cares of politics and confine ourselves to the law...
2 — As for my opinion of marriage, it may be gathered from the fact that I have passed the bounds of forty and am still running away from it.
We must not forget that we live here in Lebanon. And we, especially in this era of independence, must preserve our virtues, among which is making woman a princess — but within the compass of the family. For that reason I do not care to examine how far woman would succeed in the field of the law were she to work in it, because I want her only at work building up the family — building it in a manner that accords with honorable morals and loftiness of soul and spirit.
2 — I have reached a great old age, and I am married, and I no longer remember anything but my opinion after marriage.
I have a companion who shares with me the sweet and the bitter of this life; that, as I see it, is the wish of the sensible man.
Woman cannot succeed in the field of the law, because the profession of the law requires of her a great deal of lying, and woman is no good at that craft. Moreover, the profession of the law calls for much chatter and empty talk, and woman is far from being like that. For this reason I advise her not to contend with man on his own ground.
I see every success for her in the practice of the fine arts and in playing poker — poker being counted among the fine arts.
2 — I have not married and do not wish to marry, for I have already married freedom, patriotism, dignity, and independence. And I wish to remain independent in my opinion: to stay up when I please, and sleep when I please, and render account to no one.
The burden of pleasing many women is lighter than the burden of pleasing one woman. So ask me nothing further...