Woman's Right to Vote

"He who advocates robbing woman of her liberty is a slave who has never been freed; for he who is freed turns to freeing whoever is enslaved, and he who is enslaved does not free. And it is blasphemy that woman should beg the right to life from man, when life in its entirety is hers."

Whoever looks upon life with the eye of broad imagination perceives that it is one comprehensive whole that cannot be divided, that the greatest thing in it completes the smallest, and the smallest thing in it completes the greatest. Among man's greatest delusions is the belief that he possesses a self independent of every other self, that he can live in isolation from his brother man, and that he can set up a barrier between himself and other people.

Perhaps the signs of this partnership appear between man and woman more than in anything else: man and woman are the two wings of a single bird, which is humanity, and the two pans of a single balance, which is the order of life; and whoever attempts to rank one above the other comes away defeated.

Woman's position in life is no less than man's, for the foundation of human society is the home and the family. And who can deny that woman is the queen of that home and the princess of that family?

He who advocates robbing woman of her liberty is a slave who has never been freed, for he who is freed turns to freeing whoever is enslaved, and he who is enslaved does not free, because he has lost his liberty — and he who lacks a thing cannot give it. Man has wronged woman only because he has not yet found his way to justice within himself, and he has enslaved her only because he has found no path to liberty within his own soul.

It is blasphemy that woman should beg her right to life and her liberty from man, when life in its entirety is hers. Nor is it in keeping with life's justice that man should enjoy a right which woman does not enjoy. There is no justification for his enjoying the freedom to vote without woman — she who has walked beside him, side by side, in all the fields of life, from poetry to literature and music and the other great matters besides. In history and in present fact we have the truest witness to this.

"In our belief, the Lebanese woman finds in the support given her by Mr. Kamadi Kamadi, Secretary of the Bar Association, a strong voice among the voices of the educated, conscious young generation, which has begun to feel that its national self suffers a grievous deficiency so long as woman is not given a real and genuine share in society."

For here we still read, from al-Khansa, from Maysun al-Kilabiyya, wife of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, and from Layla al-Akhyaliyya, poetry and letters beneath which stands the verse of the master poets. And how many a woman of letters in our own age has hung a jewel about the neck of literature! What, then, is the meaning of this acknowledgment of woman's excellence in such great things, joined to the accusation that she is incapable of performing what is incomparably less? Indeed, upon my life, how can woman keep pace with man — and all but outstrip him — in the field of the liberal professions, such as medicine, law, and engineering, which are the most exacting and difficult things in human society, and yet have no right to vote, when between the two there is a disproportion beyond all measure?

Nay, would that I knew: how can woman be a school that brings forth prodigies, raises up geniuses, and makes good men of many, and yet not be fit to choose the worthy among them? Which is greater — to create a thing, or to point it out? It is sheer folly to accuse woman of incapacity: for what incapacity can be ascribed to her who makes of the coward a brave man, of the weak a strong one, of the miser a generous, open-handed one, and of the stammerer an eloquent speaker?

She who directs the politics of the home — and the politics of the home is the nucleus of the politics of the entire world — will find no difficulty in understanding the politics of the village.

She who holds over hearts a sway that shakes thrones and rolls crowns down and raises them up — in the words of that great commander, "She who rocks the cradle with her right hand shakes the earth with her left" — is it beyond her power to carry a slip of paper to the ballot box and lift up her voice?

If the basis of the right to vote is learning and understanding, then woman has a better claim to it than most men, for most women have received an ample portion of culture and hold high diplomas. How, then, are the doors of the ballot bolted against them while they stand open to hundreds of men into whose homes and whose minds learning has never entered? And what use is there in debating whether man or woman is the more knowing and the more worthy to vote, when the voting itself proceeds upon a rule that knowledge condemns and that learning and liberty alike refuse? How often does the will of some party chief drive men like herds to the ballot boxes without their having any knowledge of the color, the kind, or the fitness of those they elect — and the balloting may even yield persons other than those they voted for! An election of this character and this destiny — it is woman's good fortune not to take part in it, lest her opinion be buried and her voice be strangled.

Election means the consultation of the nation in an atmosphere pervaded by independence and liberty, and deputyship means the representation of the nation. And what is the meaning of this representation if the deputy is the offspring of an individual will and does not spring from the will of the people?

The people must impose its will upon persons, and it must be condemned that persons should impose their wills upon the people. The deputy must carry up to the parliamentary assembly the free will of the people, that he may be free in his parliament; for the will of the nation is the inexhaustible wellspring of will and the source of a liberty that knows no servitude.

It is shameful that we should live in a country in whose every corner purity encamps, and under a sky that rains down showers of liberty, and yet possess of liberty not even the freedom to think of it. It is a calamity that our tongues should cry out in the name of liberty while we build nests for servitude in our souls.

Into this broad field of true liberty in elections I call woman to descend, for she is equal to it. If man is stronger than she in some kinds of work, she is stronger than he in other kinds — finer, more sensitive, and more important. And upon my life, life is not measured by material strength but by spiritual and intellectual strength. Nor is there any fear that woman, if she takes part in elections, will turn to politics away from what matters more, such as managing the home and rearing children: for behold, the involvement of most men in politics stops at the limit of voting alone — the peasant returns to his field, the merchant to his trade, the lawyer to his practice, and the physician to his medicine, and woman will return to her home. Few are those whom politics so captivates that they give themselves over to it entirely, and no rule is drawn from the few. The woman who can found economic, learned, and charitable associations and run them in the best of fashions can enter the battleground of life without any dust clinging to her — above all if she takes learning for her shield and morals for her fortress.

The loftiness of woman's station in a nation is proof of the loftiness of morals, progress, and national consciousness in that nation; and the lowness of her station is proof of the lowness of the station of learning and morals in it. Hence we see that the peoples who have tasted the flavor of civilization establish equality between man and woman, so that she both votes and is voted for — America, England, and France, for example — and now our neighbor Syria is proceeding along this same course. It is a disgrace that the two pans of the balance of man and woman should not stand level in Lebanon, the country of culture and the meeting place of the world's civilizations.

The legislator who declares man and woman equal is a wise legislator who has seen the light, grasped the truth, and found his way to the knowledge of God.

May those who hold the reins of government in Lebanon, then, undertake to amend the electoral law so that woman stands equal in it with man; for thereby the principles of equality, justice, liberty, and brotherhood will be set aright.

The Opinion of Mr. Nassar Ghalmiyeh

Before my journey to Europe and the United States of America I was among those who advocated encouraging woman in the demand for her rights and granting her this natural right, because the Arab and Lebanese woman possesses the capacity of the Arab and Lebanese man, and his merits, his intelligence, his learning, and his morals.

She is the mother, the wife, the sister, and the daughter; and I marvel at those who deny her this right — nay, who look upon her with a look of contempt and as an anomaly. And if there still remains a handful of Arabs and Lebanese who look upon her in this way, it is proof of mental backwardness and moral decay!

Now, after my return from my latest journey, I say in all frankness that the Lebanese woman is still at the beginning of her activity, her works, and her efforts. While we acknowledge the abundant services and assistance she renders in founding associations and in helping children and the poor, these efforts and services remain modest and partial beside the activity, efforts, and works of the American woman.

The American woman has rolled up her sleeves with earnestness and energy and gone down into the field of commercial, industrial, and political work, and she has succeeded brilliantly. And she — woman, that is — is among the most important causes that have brought America to such progress, greatness, and wealth.

It is our duty in Lebanon to encourage woman in her works and her aims, and to support her demands, that she may obtain her rights in full and assist man in his works, his efforts, and his duties.

Nassar Ghalmiyeh, Attorney at Law
Deputy for the South