The Jordanian Woman Votes

Last month the Jordanian authorities surprised the world with the news that woman has been given half her political rights: the educated woman now has the right to vote — she has a say in the election of the people's representatives, though her ambition to be elected herself was not considered!... It is a benevolent gesture, even if all of us wished her a complete right, after the example of her two sisters in Lebanon and in Syria.

I said that this decision came as a surprise to the informed circles of the world, which have followed, and still follow with interest, the women's movements — vigorous in Egypt and moderate in Iraq — and how, up to now, they have ended in disappointment. It seems to me that at the head of modern Jordan there is a certain wisdom!.. And at times I wonder: could Her Majesty Queen Dina — young, cultivated, and understanding — be behind this happy surprise?!

It is, in any case, a blessed step, a positive weapon in the hand of the unarmed woman; and it is in the nature of a weapon to strengthen the morale of the one who bears it and to redouble her desire for action — and so to drive the mass of Jordan's women along the road of the true renaissance, one that takes in every department of their lives alike.

The eye of the world today is upon the women of Jordan. What response will follow upon this gesture, and into what activity will their united collective conscience burst forth?

And may the turn of our Egyptian and Iraqi sisters come next!...