The Woman's Word

The approval by the Administration and Justice Committee of the bill granting woman her political right was a blessed step, taken by the responsible men after long-drawn-out hesitation; it was a comprehension of a legitimate right whose understanding had long eluded those in charge.

We have great hope that the Chamber of Deputies will take its second step, and that its majority will show that it, too, understands its duties and is aware of them, and will pass the bill whole and undiminished.

The Lebanese woman is all but certain that the men of this Chamber will show a deep understanding of the legitimacy of woman's rights, will appreciate her long, arduous struggle for these rights, and will respect this struggle, which seeks to build this homeland alongside the builders among them.

And the Lebanese woman has great hope that the men of this Chamber, as they study the bill, will study it in the spirit of gravity and seriousness that is known in men responsible for building their homelands, and will not take it up in the spirit with which the Lebanese man usually takes up women's affairs at his evening parties and gatherings — that spirit which always regards woman as something negligible, given no weight.

And we like to believe that not one of the men of this Chamber, whatever his idea and his mentality, whatever his direction in life, intends to stand in the way of this bill; for we do not like to think that any one of them wishes to stand against the wheel of time, or wishes that no strong edifice should rise in his homeland to withstand the ages.... We are watching for the word of the men of the Chamber of Deputies, that we may judge for them or against them.

And the Lebanese woman, who has demonstrated until now a composure she will not abandon, will go on struggling with the very composure that some men abandon on some occasions; her confidence in herself will remain what it is: she believes in her mission, and that she alone is fit to carry out this mission in the fullest manner.

... Her mission is a mission of goodness and blessing, a mission of constructive love. She covets neither dominion over man, nor rivalry with him for work, nor the abandonment of her duties as mother and wife; but she does not wish to remain, in Lebanon, a negligible quantity, or merely a pretty doll.

Woman in Lebanon wishes to build her life — and your lives, O men.