article · Issue No. 8, August 1950 · p. 14 p. 15

Where Woman Is... a Human Being

حيث المرأة ... إنسان

There recently appeared, from the Department of Public Information of the United Nations, a booklet entitled "Woman's Political Rights over 56 Years," containing facts about the countries in which woman has been granted her political right in full, those in which she has been granted it curtailed, and those in which the rights of man are still reserved to the male alone — as though by "man" were meant only men.

The states in which woman enjoys her full right number fifty. In 16 of them woman attained her rights between the First and Second World Wars, namely: Australia, Austria, Byelorussia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Holland, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Sweden, Turkey, the Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. In 34 of them woman attained her rights between the Second World War and this present year, namely: Albania, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Ceylon, Chile, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Liberia, Mongolia, Panama, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Siam, England, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia.

As for the states which gave woman her political right curtailed — imposing on her certain conditions before she was allowed to take part in elections (conditions not imposed on man), or restricting her electoral right to purely local elections, such as municipal elections or the election of mukhtars — they number nine, namely: Bolivia, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Portugal, and Syria. In all of them woman attained her rights after the Second World War.

And there are twelve states in which women are denied the enjoyment of the political rights that their sisters have won, whether in full or curtailed, in the other states of the world.

These states are: Afghanistan, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Haiti, Jordan, Honduras, Iraq, Lebanon, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, and Abyssinia.

It is worth mentioning that the last two states have denied men, too, the exercise of political rights; hence no parliamentary elections are held in them, and their two kings content themselves with appointing the members of the council outright.

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