Woman and Political Rights

Political rights are a means, not an end. They are the means by which individuals, groups, organizations, and parties convey their legitimate demands to the ears of those in authority, find someone to defend their rights, and bring about the laws and changes they deem it necessary to bring about, in reinforcement of the people's interests and in assurance of justice and order. For the parliamentary system places the people's destiny in its own hands and guarantees it the right to govern itself by itself, through the deputies it elects to represent it; if it chooses well, the gain is its own, and if it chooses badly, the loss is its own.

Woman's political rights, from a theoretical standpoint or one of principle, are a step forward, because they give her confidence in herself, making her feel in a practical way that she is man's equal in the right to political and social education, and consequently in the right to vote and to pass judgment. They show her that she is no longer, as before, isolated from the affairs of politics and society, but has become obliged to contact, study, and understanding, because a new responsibility rests upon her.

She may ask why she is given the right of political equality without the rest of the rights whose cause has been neglected; then her very asking becomes proof of awareness and alertness, and perhaps that will spur her to strive to gain those remaining rights, after the example of the women of the advanced world, and in application of the declaration of human rights, which says: "All human beings, male and female, are equal in rights, regardless of color, race, or sex."

Rights and Duties

The democratic system gives the individuals of the people broad rights, matched by duties no less broad. Let us list the chief rights the government must secure for the individual: the right of protection from all kinds of aggression and exploitation; the right to free schooling, at least to the end of the elementary stage; the right of free election and of candidacy for government posts; freedom of thought, speech, and religion; the right to work, and the right to fixed working hours and the benefit of a law defining the relations between worker and employer; the right of assembly and of belonging to licensed associations and unions; the right to social insurance and to the attainment of a standard of living that guarantees man health and well-being.

As for the individual's duties in return for the rights he enjoys, we can sum them up by saying that they are — in the first degree — obedience to the laws that the people approved through its deputies and representatives. Here it behooves each of us, when demanding of the government what it owes him, to ask himself: has he performed the duties required of him as a citizen? Has he paid the taxes due from him without trying to evade them? Did he not try to deceive the authorities in the declaration he submitted of his yearly income? Has he done his electoral duty in the best possible way, shunning bribery and partiality?

And what shall we say of the laws forbidding the cutting of trees without a permit, the carrying of arms and the firing of shots, giving to the beggar, and smoking in places where smoking is prohibited? Are these laws obeyed as they should be? Or is our obedience to them on a par with drivers' obedience to the traffic laws, and building owners' to the law for the beautification of cities, and the inhabitants of the country generally to the law on the cleanliness of streets and public places?

"As you are, so will you be governed." The citizen who does not do his share of public service, who does not stand with the whole in behalf of a useful undertaking, who regards breaking the law as an act of heroism, and does not perform the duties of his post with honesty and integrity, has no right to enjoy a citizen's rights, nor to take part in the process of election.

The Political Right Is a Responsibility

From what has been said it becomes clear to us that the political right is a responsibility, and not merely a right... It is a dangerous weapon that woman can use for evil as for good; if she falls into the errors into which man fell before her, she will have done nothing but multiply the evils of elections and expose the defects of the parliamentary system when it is badly applied.

Men's positions on woman's political right differ. Among them is the mocker, among them the zealot, among them the pessimist and the optimist. But the politicians and the politically minded — as is their habit — are making ready to exploit woman's right for their own benefit, and see in her a new force they can shape to their service. For man's position toward woman — though circumstances differ — is still just what Lord Chesterfield declared it in the seventeenth century, when he wrote in certain of his letters: "Since women, by their abundant numbers and their social influence, are a force not to be slighted in society, it befits the man who pursues money and fame to attract their favor and win grace in their eyes; and the most effective means to that is flattery and cajolery and praise of their beauty and the soundness of their minds, for all women, without exception, are quickly moved by praise, even when it is false."

Shawqi said in this sense:
They deceived her, calling her a beauty —
and fair maids are beguiled by praise...

In such sayings there is a lesson for women, an admonition and a warning. Yet there are men whose weapon is other than flattery. They may use threats, especially if the woman is a burden upon them — that is, a mother or a sister or a wife who depends on the man for her keep. But the woman of strong will and sound character is led by no one, whatever his tie to her. I have known such women in the villages and in the cities: girls of firm personality who refuse to submit to their families in matters of marriage when these run counter to their inclinations or their interests; women who resist their husbands' straying and succeed in bringing them back to the right path.

Woman's vote has no value unless she makes it a means of mending what has gone wrong, of obtaining the rights that have so far escaped her, of electing the capable men attested for uprightness and zeal for the public interest, and of casting off pretension and the hangers-on, the self-styled leaders, and those who pursue wealth by the shortest roads.

Conditions of Sound Elections

The first condition of an election, if it is to yield the required results, is that it be free. Its freedom means its innocence of the following defects:

1 — Public voting. The right way is that it proceed in secret, the voter placing his ballot in the ballot box without announcing its content, for that better secures his freedom, since it puts him safe from the pressure of interested parties and propaganda, and from the influence of the people of bribery and the buyers of consciences.

2 — Bribery, or the purchase of votes with money and honeyed promises. This is without doubt the worst defect of the parliamentary system and the most corrupting to morals, and it is the government's duty to take the necessary measures to prevent bribery and to impose stern penalties on briber and bribed alike.

3 — Emotional partiality, that is, letting our personal feelings of love or hatred rule us in supporting one candidate and opposing another. Some people are led emotionally by a candidate's appearance, drawn by his elegance or his fluent tongue, and so support him without a thought for his intellectual and moral worth. Others are led by the influence of friends and neighbors, so that their voting becomes a kind of courtesy and going-along for which Easterners are known — although the matter of elections is so grave that it demands the rule of reason and conscience, not of feeling and imitation.

4 — Fear of the men of money and social standing, and considering them worthier than others of representing the country. Among the harmful traditions that must be fought is the exaltation of the men of money and the men of government, appearing before them in the guise of cowardice and fear, and electing them to important posts — whereas the democratic system requires us to profess the principle of equality and social brotherhood, and to take no other basis for election than personal competence, which has nothing to do with lineage or with social position. It may happen that a candidate combines competence and sincerity with wealth and standing; but his election may be built only on the first two qualities.

5 — Sectarianism. This is the malady of which everyone jealous for his country's interest complains, for the distribution of posts and parliamentary seats according to a sect's numerical standing is nothing but a registering of the division existing among the individuals of the people and a demolition of the idea of the homeland from its very foundation. And no weight attaches to the saying of those who say, "sectarianism must be removed from souls before it is removed from the texts," for the law is the best means of directing people to the straight path; if this argument were sound, we should say in the same sense: "greed and need must be removed from people's souls before theft is forbidden" — and the reverse is the truth, for the mere existence of a law invites people to think about it, to be convinced of its rightness, and then to act according to it.

6 — Family partisanship: just as sectarianism rules us, so the clan spirit still rules us, driving us to go along with kin and brothers even in wrong. If the candidate for parliament or anything else is a relative or a kinsman of ours, we consider it our duty or our interest to rally around him, though we know he is unfit for the position to which he aspires. This clan spirit will not disappear except with the disappearance of the education in dependence on which Eastern families have been reared, the spread of the spirit of self-reliance, and liberation from the pressure of family and traditions.

And let us say in conclusion:

Upon woman lies a responsibility of reform and renewal in her new electoral era: to fight the defects of past elections; to be a messenger of order and peace within the country and outside it; to regard herself as a leader, not one who is led. And let her remember that the pillar of sound elections is an aware mind, a living conscience, and an upright character — and all of that is within woman's reach if she receives a measure of proper education and guidance in the home, the school, and society.