Woman in the World

Woman in the World

Egypt

In Egyptian circles these days there is a great uproar over woman's political right. Many factions have appeared in Egyptian society, some in support and some opposed; and the movement of opposition has not been confined to men's circles — there are women's elements too who do not support woman's right to vote.

Mrs. Aziza, wife of Dr. Muhammad Husayn Haykal Pasha, president of the Senate, stands at the head of these women opponents. Mrs. Haykal Pasha has stirred an uproar in Egyptian women's circles by her opposition to woman's right to vote.

○ But Mrs. Munira Thabit, the first Egyptian woman to demand the right to vote, declares that if woman is not granted the right to vote before the end of December of this year, she will take a legal step that will put the government authorities in an awkward position. This means that the women of Egypt will, before the end of this year, stand before the courts against the government.

○ Ladies in Egypt have been permitted to work as taxi drivers, whereupon the taxi drivers protested — because passengers will doubtless prefer to ride in any taxi driven by a beautiful lady.

Some of the women drivers say they are pleased at being allowed to practice this work they love, and nothing troubles them but the passengers' flirting, and their having to bear these flirtations with patience.

Syria

Some deputies in the Syrian Chamber had presented a petition last month, before the recent coup, asking that the Syrian woman be granted the right to vote and be made man's equal in rights and duties.

Then came the recent military coup, and among its first good deeds: the leader Husni al-Za'im declared that Syria will most certainly grant woman the right to vote. Thus Syria will be the first Arab state in which woman exercises her rights in the coming elections.

Forward, Syria!...

America

In the course of the last century a number of laws were passed which amended existing conditions and removed what remained of the legal barriers that hampered woman's participation in the various government posts, her exercise of her individual rights of contract, agency, and property, and the regulation of family relations.

The efforts of the women's organizations and their cooperation had a far-reaching effect in bringing about the reform legislation and its enforcement. As a result, woman's social field widened and her political and civil standing advanced.

Her political rights

Here is a summary of the political rights the American woman has come to enjoy:

1 — Woman enjoys the right to vote.
2 — Woman takes a large share in the making of laws.
3 — She now sits among jurors, with the exception of 13 states.
4 — She has the right to hold public office, whether filled by election or by appointment, as well as civil-service posts.
5 — Woman enjoys full property rights, and her personal income is hers alone.
6 — Woman ordinarily bears the responsibility for whatever wrongful acts she undertakes.
7 — Woman has become a free human being, and her husband has no right to restrict her freedom or to punish her.
8 — The divorce laws have come to recognize the right of husband and wife equally.
9 — The custody laws have come to recognize the mother as they recognize the father.

London

More than a million ladies protested... against the doctors' researches aiming at abolishing pain in childbirth... They said in their protest that the mother's happiest moments... are when she hears the first cry of her child seeing the light of life for the first time — and that the doctors' researches will do away with this spiritual delight of mothers!!

The doctors commented on this protest by saying: the mothers misunderstand their researches, for these researches aim only at abolishing the pain, so that the mother remains in full possession of her senses during childbirth.

But in spite of that... the mothers are still set upon their opinion, and they wrote in the papers, saying:

— We do not know why the doctors take all this interest in us... Who are the ones who suffer? Is it the doctors, or we?!!

India

Sarojini Naidu, the greatest of India's women, has died at seventy; she held the office of governor of the United Provinces of India.

She was Gandhi's companion in his struggle against colonialism, and she was a brilliant orator, an excellent poetess, and a witty conversationalist.

In 1925 she was elected president of the Indian Congress Party.

And in 1947 she presided over the Asian Conference held in New Delhi.

Her poems met with a world fame like that which Tagore's poems met, and they were translated into several languages.

She was among Gandhi's dearest friends; she used to call him "Mickey Mouse," and when she was imprisoned with him in 1942 she managed to persuade him to learn ping-pong.

She leaves two daughters, who live now with her husband, Major Naidu, an officer in the Indian army.

Woman in China enjoys a lofty station of respect and care — on condition that she be a mother or a grandmother... But if she is the son's wife, she must serve her mother-in-law and submit to her with a submission admitting neither annulment nor appeal.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek is the first Chinese woman to have worked for the emancipation of woman; she is the most beautiful, most dazzling, and ablest ambassadress to America, and she has failed in the last and gravest of her missions — to save her people and her husband from Communism.

She is 37 years old. She married Chiang Kai-shek when she was seventeen.

She was educated in America, and while a student was elected a beauty queen. Her husband is thirty years older than she.

She led the women's movement in China, and to her goes the credit for the emancipation of the Chinese woman.