Mr. Hasan Qablan's Letter on Woman's Political Rights

Following the appearance of the last issue of The Woman's Voice magazine, which contained a historical survey of woman's supporters and her opponents with respect to woman's political rights, we received from the president of the Court of Cassation, Mr. Hasan Qablan, the following word. In publishing it verbatim, we are very pleased to win over the respected gentleman, so that he becomes one of our supporters!!

To the respected editor-in-chief of The Woman's Voice magazine:

I read in the latest issue of your magazine an answer that presents me as an opponent of woman with regard to her obtaining her political rights.

I do not deny the statement attributed to me, but I wish to clarify it. The truth is that these words of mine are one part of a longer statement, the rest of which was dropped, no doubt inadvertently, when it was set down. What I said was to the effect that it is woman's sacred right to enjoy her rights in full, provided that her actual social life enables her to carry out these rights — then I added, regretfully, the statement recorded in your magazine, the gist of which is that men do not use their rights fully (as happens in parliamentary elections, for example) — so how should women!

Furthermore, I call your attention to the fact that I have previously affirmed this right of woman's in several articles and lectures. Among the things I said was that Islamic law — which is the only general law that determines woman's position in the countries of the East as a whole — does not deny woman her right to elect and to be elected; that every restriction of this natural right was introduced by laws derived from the West, at a time when the West barred woman from her political rights; and that upon the mere repeal of these laws, all of woman's rights return to her, without any need of enumerating them.

Please accept my respects.

Beirut, December 11, 1951.