Through the Eye of the Needle

He came to me one day distraught and bewildered, and said, before even offering me a greeting: "Who are these people who want the ruin of homes, the scattering of families, and the weakening of mankind's faith in motherhood!" He fell silent a moment, then went on with the utmost earnestness and feeling — Imagine: this country, deep-rooted in its traditions, ancient in its civilization, proud of the conservatives among our fathers and forefathers, suddenly turned upside down — its women become men, and its men become subject to the tyranny of the weakest of the weak among the Almighty's creatures...!

And my interlocutor — the poetic spirit of Khalil Mutran having taken possession of him — went on repeating gloomily, "And is there any tyranny like the tyranny of the weak?..."

Here I tried to speak, but he prevented me, resuming his talk as is his habit. And when he saw that I was serious and heated, he fell silent, dumbfounded, and I addressed him straightway: The laws of human evolution decree everything that angers and grieves him personally — the equality of woman with man; and there is no crime in the matter, no trespass against the sanctity of his conservative father and grandfather — and he is one of them — for woman is a first and vital element in the shaping of the rising generations. If men appraised woman's works in all the fields of life, they would find them the best thing the advanced nations rely upon for the reform of human society, the straightening of its morals, and the shoring up of what has collapsed of the foundations of its sovereignty, its being, and its prosperity.

— And do you believe what you say?

— With complete faith and confidence. There is nothing before us but to choose: to remain an ignorant nation, shrinking its way toward extinction and decay — or a nation that triumphs over its worn-out traditions, and continues, growing and advancing, toward life and flowering.

And how great was his astonishment when I told him that everything had already been accomplished, and that woman would emerge from this battle with head held high, her honor guarded, her dignity intact.