The Woman's Word

How wonderful a song Lebanon is echoing, with women's throats joining in sweet singing!! And when spirits are glad, they sing!

Yes, our Lebanon is in holiday joy! For man has gone along with woman in what she desired and has fulfilled her demands. And his going along with her, his fulfilling of her demands, is nothing less than the proof of his social maturity, and of the fact that he is paving the way, in practice, for "the new and ideal life" to which His Excellency President Chamoun pointed in his first speech...

And so it well becomes us to be reconciled after estrangement, and to let our hearts knit together, so that we may all stand and repeat, with Khalid Muhammad Khalid: "From here... we begin!" As for our troubled past, wrapped about with humiliation and injustice, it is best — best of all — that we draw a thick curtain over it; for tomorrow alone... is ours.

And now: the time has come to set out on the journey, after a readiness for the march that lasted all too long. As a prelude to our activity, we place great hope in this sound nucleus of our women, who for the first time in Lebanon's history sit as colleagues of men in the municipal councils, cooperating with them faithfully to wipe filth and misery from the face of the capital, so that Beirut, thanks to these joined efforts, may deservedly become the pearl of the East.

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The Lebanese woman today feels the weight of the responsibility that has been entrusted to her. And who will deny that the feeling of responsibility alone is enough to whet one's powers and double one's energy? And who knows what may yet come of woman, in a near tomorrow, when she speaks her word about her fellow citizens? Will her opinion be a distorted one, swayed by the opinion of a husband or a brother, as man accuses her, or an independent, conscious opinion aiming solely at the nation's highest good?

It is without doubt a hard test that awaits woman — she has never before passed through such a test — and so it is natural that she should be exposed to committing errors: those ugly errors which man has practiced deliberately in his parliamentary life, and upon which woman will wage relentless war, alerting her sisters, the women, to steer clear of their snares and be safe from their dangers, with the fine sensibility, the sincerity in work, and the innate nobility of soul for which women are known.

It is my conviction that the Lebanese woman will not be, in the coming elections, a natural "appendage" of her husband, as they claim; rather she will strive from this day forward to grasp fully the responsibilities incumbent upon her, and will turn her thought and her mind to wide reading and to personal contacts, so as to form for herself, out of all of these, an independent opinion built on clear foundations, and thus to be able to answer these questions:

1 — Who is the citizen fit to represent the people?

2 — What are the qualities that must be present in a deputy?

3 — How do I recognize the corrupt elements which it will be my national duty to fight and to keep far from the seats of power and influence?

If the Lebanese woman can come to understand these questions and others besides, she will enjoy the complete confidence of the leaders of this era, who took her by the hand and acknowledged her as a citizen of full right, worthy to be a partner and a colleague in the true sense.

And the future will reveal all!