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 stand-point 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

In fulfillment of the promise we made to ourselves to offer our gracious readers practical guiding studies in "political education," we are pleased to present today the first installment of the researches of our thinking woman of letters, Miss:

Rose Ghorayeb

And we are certain that the aware class of our women will give these carefully planned researches the attention they deserve.

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