The Woman's Word

With the moon of Muharram there appeared over Lebanon a face bearing the radiance of the infant crescent, and hearts hailed its appearance, applauded, and augured well of its era...

... In the hall of Parliament, on the 23rd of last September, the deputies of Lebanon elected Mr. Camille Chamoun President of the Republic, in succession to Sheikh Beshara El-Khouri, who had resigned.

This sudden transition, from one era to another, was shining proof of the rallying and joining of forces of the various fronts, and it was a response to the will of the Lebanese people — this proud, watchful people which has proved that it has an opinion to be heeded and a will to be obeyed.

And the Lebanese woman, despite the grievances she holds against the previous era, her great soul refuses to take the stance of the small man who shoots his arrow from behind and cheers the victor, whoever he may be... No, that is not our position. Rather, we are positive: we place in this era, and in the person of the country's new President, great hopes, grounded in his glorious history and in the long chain of his honorable national struggle..

The echo of President Camille Chamoun's address made the finest impression on souls, and his program was a true realization of the wish of the Lebanese — of those over every walk of whose lives despair had swept, and whose souls yearned for a life joined with dignity.

At the summit of his address His Excellency the President said: "Lebanon wants a new life, by new methods, driven by a new spirit."

Yes, sir. You know better than anyone the need of Lebanon, which has wearied of the old, worn-out methods and systems, while the world comes out to us every day with newly devised, serviceable methods... And we, Your Excellency, want proof that we are truly resolved to march in the caravan of human civilization.. And how can we live a new life when half of us is neglected and paralyzed, living in locked boxes?

Does it not cut us to the quick — we, the women of this country — that in your election we had not even a single vote? Is it true that, for all the stages of learning we have traversed, we neither understand nor appreciate the needs of our country? And is it true that our nation today has no need of our hands in the awaited wave of reform?

And is there in the world today, Your Excellency the President, a "new life" for any nation among the nations in which man and woman have not become equal, so that she may cooperate with him in building this life, each according to his specialty and his capacities?

The women of Lebanon are most optimistic about this era and about your taking the helm of the ship, and they consider that their cause, now passing through its final stage, is as good as accomplished..

And this beautiful Lebanon of ours, tossed until now by all manner of currents and negative elements bent on keeping woman from reaching her goal, will be able, after today, to realize its beautiful dream, so that in its scales the pan of its daughters rises as high as the pan of its sons... Lebanon has had enough of this favoritism, which in no way whatever suits the spirit of this age!