Woman in Parliament

The subject of giving woman her political rights has become a matter of talk familiar to everyone, especially after the well-considered resolution which the United Nations presented to the two states of Syria and Lebanon.

It appears from this that the United Nations appreciated the talent and genius of the Lebanese-Syrian man, and so realized that his sister, woman, is worthy also of obtaining her political rights. And in my capacity as a Lebanese young lady, I raise my voice demanding of our esteemed government and our honorable Chamber that the Lebanese woman be given her political rights, appealing thereby to the zeal and the sympathy of the Sheikh of the country, His Excellency the President of the Republic, that history may record for him a precious golden page, to be added to the register of his golden era—the era of glory, independence, and freedom.

Among the principal grounds that led the Committee on Proposals in the previous Chamber to refuse to grant the Lebanese woman political rights is that woman in Lebanon is still a minor and ignorant, and that the proportion of her education does not exceed 20 percent.

This argument is void! And we do not know from where the committee drew this estimated statistic, or how it obtained it.

The Lebanese woman cannot be counted weak in culture, for she is not inferior to the man in culture. And if we wish to compare the Lebanese woman with her Western sister—the Russian and the American, and even the Turkish—then I say: where are our men beside the men of the West in the worlds of politics, discovery, invention, aviation, and true science?

And let us suppose there were some truth in it: how then is it permissible for the illiterate man in Lebanon to vote and to elect, while what is permitted to him is not permitted to the Lebanese woman?

And the committee says: that this conflicts with woman's family duty in the raising of children, and with her history, because the Lebanese woman has never gone down into the field of work; and especially since the Eastern Arab states have not given woman her political right, and it is feared that woman will crowd man out and the number of the unemployed increase.

Yes, the task laid upon her shoulders is the raising of her children, the management of her home, and the refining of the rising generation of the future; but not all women have a passion and desire for political affairs—nor, likewise, do all men, for we see many of them shunning politics and keeping their distance from it. And the refined, educated woman who is fit to occupy a political post is able to carry out her political, domestic, and conjugal duty. I know a great number of ladies whose husbands hold a lofty station in politics and leadership, and who share with them in the management of political affairs while running their homes and raising their children.

As for its never having occurred in her history that she went down to work: the world today is in great progress. In olden times man was of a backward, reactionary mentality, and woman stood at a certain level of ignorance, dullness, and degradation; and with the days and the well-known factors he has become of an excellent, refined, cultivated mentality—and woman likewise.

Are we today as our forefathers and ancestors were in dress, customs, and food? Shall we go back to the worn-out old, or hold fast to the useful new, when the whole of life is renewal and benefits, discovery and invention?

And if the Eastern states have not given woman her right, must the Lebanese woman then be deprived of it—she who stands in the forefront of the women of the East in advancement and culture? The late Huda Shaarawi, leader of the Egyptian women's renaissance, bore witness to this:

And if the field were opened to the Lebanese woman, she would prove that she is the cleverest and most brilliant of the women of the world without exception! For just as the Lebanese-Syrian man has shone in the lands of emigration, so the Lebanese-Syrian woman is equal to every progress and success.

And if the fear is of woman crowding man out of his work and of an increase in the number of the unemployed, that is refuted by the argument that she already works in Lebanon as physician, lawyer, teacher, and nurse, just as she works in workshops and factories and commercial establishments and in government offices, whether at the typewriter or in certain simple posts; and nothing is lacking to her but the giving of her political rights. As for the number of the unemployed, it will not increase; on the contrary, companies will multiply and business will expand, and women and men will go down together into the field of common, productive work, as in all the advanced countries and kingdoms—and thereby the unemployed will disappear.