The Syrian Woman in Parliament

On the tenth of last July the Syrian people were unanimous in electing the Leader Adib al-Shishakli President of the Syrian Republic, and spoke their decisive word on the new Syrian constitution, under which the Syrian woman will be granted her full right to elect and to be elected.

On this occasion we received from Damascus the following word from Miss Munawwar Fawwal, on behalf of the administrative board of the League of Arabic Literature.

For a long time the Syrian lands have been living in a thorny situation — no republican stability, and no Chamber of Deputies to carry out the aims which the people hangs upon the necks of officials and deputies as a precious trust...

The past years went by as a crawling thing goes — in slow steps and a still, quiet motion, with no tremor in it, and no ray breaking forth toward the fulfillment of the great hopes which the individuals of the people had placed in the keeping of the honorable deputies and the men of the bygone regime.

Yes, the situation described above shamed us and stripped the confidence from our souls, before our sisters the Arab states and before our enemies in the foreign countries — every state and city chewing over the story of Syria, the story of the evolution of its government, and the story of the two coups that took place in recent years. But there is one good soul, rebellious, ablaze with the heat of a dignity that admits no defeat, whose eye never sleeps to aggression... and the noble humanity in whose heart surpasses every Arab pride and every lofty patriotic spirit — the soul of the country's leader, the mover of its pillars, and the hero of its modern renaissance, the mighty Leader Adib al-Shishakli... mighty over his own soul, which he denied happiness and the dear means of comfort for the sake of beloved Syria.

But this savior hero came, this devoted leader, holding in his hand a torch of shining lights — of freedom and of liberation from the chains of bondage; he set aside the men of selfishness and personal ends, and opened before the individuals of the Syrian people, in all their classes, the broad road lit with the longed-for freedom. With the expert help of the educated youth he undertook the framing of the presidential constitution, so as to build upon its firm pillars the flourishing new era, which provides the citizens with complete comfort and bestows lasting happiness upon them.

Nor did the great Leader Adib al-Shishakli forget the Syrian woman, who believed in his mission and welcomed his steady strides at every stage — forget, that is, to grant her parliamentary rights and her entry into the Syrian Parliament so that she may exercise her rights. He fulfilled for her the desire her soul had long yearned after, ever since her colleague the Lebanese woman gained the right to vote. The Syrian woman never ceased striving earnestly, believing in her mission, plunging into the throes of debate, and demanding of the state her constitutional right to be a "deputy" representing the daughters of her sex, speaking with their tongue and speaking of their principles and their political and civic aims, and of everything touching her affairs and her sovereignty; and the voice of the Syrian woman rang out into the air without the officials paying it the attention it required.

And the Syrian woman remained patient and believing — she who believed in the fulfillment of her mission before its signs were ever set down... She believed in the Leader al-Shishakli with a firm faith, because he is Syria's great, thinking man, who appreciated her place in the nation and her great ardor for her dear homeland... And so he granted her Article Forty-Four of the new Syrian constitution of the year 1953 A.D., corresponding to 1372 A.H., that she might enter Parliament with head held high... with shining brow...

Carrying the satchel of her mission, asking to fulfill her aims in life.

Thus the Syrian woman has come into her full rights, thanks to the liberator of Syria from tyranny, dissolution, corruption, and despotism.

To you, O Leader of freedom, our thanks and our gratitude; and yours are our souls for the sake of our Syrian land... Syria, which recognized in your great person the immortal courage and the brilliant ardor... Syria, which you have served with your pure spirit... whose righteous sons and rising cubs will serve you all their lives, until their souls ascend from their breasts.

May God preserve you for us as a great glory, and for Syria as a lofty pride...

Damascus — Munawwar Fawwal