Guidance for the Lebanese Woman

Dear voter:—

In order to perform your duty in the best possible way,

and in order to exercise your right as a conscious citizen, I would like to draw your attention to the following points:

1 – Choose for yourself definite aims that you wish to achieve through your participation in the country's political life, and strive toward them with boldness and daring. Beware of retreating from your drive toward achieving them, however much resistance you may meet.

2 – Set before your eyes the qualities you demand in the representative of your people, the qualities you cannot give up, and elect the person who in your view possesses most of them, without any hesitation or regard for considerations, be they personal or family.

3 – Trust that this electoral work of yours will have its notable effect in changing the conditions we complain of and in setting up in their place a new life that guarantees us steady progress and advancement, if you exercise your right with clear sight and a living conscience.

4 – Arm yourself always with the sense of responsibility toward the rising generation, for when you place your ballot in the ballot box you will have determined for it the political, economic, and social life within which it will inevitably grow up.

5 – Do not take the responsibility of participating in political life lightly or with indifference, claiming that work in this field is not your affair; rather, go down into the very heart of the fray and fight with all the vigor and firmness you have been given, to remove the political and social diseases from whose painful weight our families suffer.

6 – Remember that the value of a woman's work is in proportion to how far the woman preserves her distinctive qualities while performing that work. So preserve your composure in resisting falsehood, and the firmness of your opinion when others try to mislead you.

7 – And remember also that woman has a tender, compassionate heart that aches for the pain and misfortunes of others, so that her pain becomes the motive for her actual participation in removing the difficulties and dispelling the fears that trouble them. Let your overflowing love for your society, to whose heart you help restore tranquility, be your guide when you decide who will represent you in the coming Chamber.

8 – Do not think of your own interest except through the reform of your society, and be certain that society cannot rise unless there are persons who have the competence to reform it and the authority to act on that competence. Be, then, a support to them, so that they may reach positions in the state that enable them to legislate and to execute.

9 – Know with certainty that if you err in choosing the representatives of your people, you will have added to the country's misfortune and dragged it steps backward; and if you choose rightly, you will be the essential factor that pushes your country toward advancement and prosperity.

10 – And know also that what we are doing now is a grave experiment whose effect will inevitably appear in the very near future, either for the country's good or for its woe. So let us work with vigilance and understanding, that we may prove to ourselves and to the whole world that we are worthy of the supreme responsibility we have been given the chance to share in bearing.

And here are some rules to help you in setting your aims and selecting the qualities you must demand in the representative of your people:

1 – Reject the candidate who tries to buy your vote with money, for your self-respect and your personal dignity cannot be valued at any material price.

2 – Reject every candidate who tries to stir up sectarian feeling in you, because the country today is in urgent need of persons who have utterly uprooted this feeling from themselves and have set about creating a single society from the members of the one nation.

3 – Beware of electing a person who never valued woman at her true worth until she came to have a hand in deciding his political fate.

4 – Do not elect a person who has used his influence in the state to distribute justice among the people according to their closeness to him and their partisanship for him.

5 – And finally, elect everyone whom power has not corrupted, and everyone who respects the sons of his nation equally, whatever their social standing and their personal inclinations. Elect everyone who has vowed himself to fight corruption wherever it may be and wherever it is found.