woman will be given her full political rights.
This is a truly beautiful thing, and a great victory for woman — but it is only the preface. Even if the wish comes true, and we exercise our political rights from tomorrow, this will not much alter man's view of us; for our men of today were reared and raised in the crookedness in which they now stand, and there has been fixed in their minds a picture of woman very difficult to change — because the internal and external factors that helped fix that deficient, disfigured picture are too strong to be removed today by discussions and proofs, however logical and convincing those proofs may be.
Let us then wash our hands of this generation — I mean of those among you who oppose us in our cause — and look to the sons of the new generation, who will grow up in the shade of true freedom...
Yes, the period of transition will extend into another generation — the day our children grow up between two parents equal in rights, and the son learns that he has no privilege over his sister, but that she has the same rights as he... And here precisely begins the constructive stage, which prepares the sound generation we want for our country.
I said that political rights are the first step; and woman's struggle does not end once the first step is achieved, but proceeds in an organized course toward the attainment of other rights, which may be, in woman's eyes, more important than the political rights themselves — I mean her civil rights, which entitle her to live honored, with head held high; and I mean also those rights of which statutes and religions have stripped her, and which remain so to this hour, with no legislative power to restore them to her.
For this reason, the question of woman's political rights, which occupies women's circles in Lebanon today, is a question of great importance, deeper than man imagines. It is not an arbitrary movement whose aim is to bring a few ladies to the seats of government; it is a question of the utmost delicacy, aiming at its heart to prepare a sound, balanced, strong generation that will shoulder the burdens of this stricken nation and ward off from it its many calamities and misfortunes. For it has been proved to our leaders of thought that among the chief causes that pull us backward, that keep us from catching up with the rising nations, and that drag us from failure to failure and from farce to farce — among the chief causes of all this is woman's anxious, weak position, and her inability to stand firm-footed in surroundings that have robbed her of many of her natural rights and then stood with folded arms,
showing no desire to repair what they had spoiled.
Gentlemen: the woman who builds for the coming generations must be strong, that she may bring up a strong generation confident in itself; and this cannot be unless woman exercises her full right, and unless she is certain that sex has no value in fixing and defining these rights, but that all value belongs to competence and diligence alone.
The time has come for us to grasp this question rightly, in the light of this analysis, if we want to live an elevated, independent life, and if we want a flourishing future for our nation. As for the continuance of the state we are now in, its result is grievous — and we want it neither for ourselves nor for our nation.
Peace be with you.
1 — Yes. Even if the child spends his allowance unwisely, this teaches him for the future.
2 — No. It is not wise to "bribe" our children to do their household duty and help us — though a reward given afterward for a job the child has done well is a commendable thing.
3 — No, for such an atmosphere is artificial and unnatural for the child.
4 — Of course not, because pressure of this kind is liable to harm the child. A good school makes up this deficiency by means of arousing interest, not by means of intimidation.
5 — Yes; and our children ought to make good use of the word "thank you."
6 — Reward and punishment are both among the things unsuited to the raising of children.
7 — The second gift is the more useful; it helps to stimulate his mind and to set in motion the power of creation and invention.
8 — No; the "slap" solves nothing. It is a momentary remedy that does no good.
9 — It is well for a father to be a good example for his children, provided he does not overdo good conduct, lest he set his children an impossible standard. It is better for him to be natural, with emphasis on the moral virtues.
10 — No — and even the best of fathers do it. Anger is part of human nature... and are fathers not human beings?!!