The Woman's Voice Seminar — Woman's Stand on the Coming Elections

Woman stands before a decisive stage...

The destiny and future of the Lebanese woman will be decided after this stage... Will she prove her existence, and demonstrate that she is fit to exercise the political right she has won?... Or will she draw back and shrink into herself, as she lived for generations past?.. The question rises everywhere: in the clubs, in the salons, and in the shops...

The men ask: will woman go into the coming battle with us?.. And in the street the same question makes the rounds... So what does woman say?

It was a quiet morning gathering at which the seminar of The Woman's Voice convened in the salon of Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura, president of the General Arab Women's Union; and the members of the seminar were the ladies: Alice Nakkash, Eva Malik, Janette Tadros, Ni'mat Qaranful, and May Fayyad.

The subject of the seminar was laid on the table for discussion: what is the Lebanese woman's stand on the coming elections?? The hostess of the seminar was the most enthusiastic of them all, and she said:

Kaddoura: We want woman to bring in renewal and reform by entering the Chamber, and we hold her above being bought and sold.

Nakkash: You are entirely right... but can she bring in this renewal under the present state of affairs?

Kaddoura: I recall a remark I once heard, the gist of which was that if the women united to elect a certain person, his success would be assured.. And this time, what is to prevent woman being elected, to encourage her — even if we do not expect the men to elect her, she being a new element... Then there are those who say the coming elections will be on a party basis; if that proves true, it becomes the women's duty to band together to elect a woman candidate of their own.

Tadros: I think that before we take up the matter of the elections, we must attend to education — I mean civic education — so that woman does not remain exposed to buying and selling.

Fayyad: I believe we are late on the subject of education: it was our duty to begin back in 1952.. from the time we obtained our electoral right; and I point to our ladies on the Municipal Council — why were they silent so long? It was necessary for them to withdraw from the Council in protest against the contrived errors taking place.

Kaddoura: I am a member of the said Council, and I can defend the women's contingent! We came in upon a deficit of 7 million lira, and we managed to check the affliction, if not to root it out; then we put an end to the policy of sparing people's feelings.. Would that our sessions were public, to be broadcast to the people, so that they might follow the course of affairs step by step.

Malik: I long to see woman prove her existence in practice. We must allow her to work first, and then judge her success or failure; and I appreciate the difficulties before her (Mrs. Tadros has mentioned some of them), but what concerns us now is to discuss how to help her.. We might begin with a campaign of speeches, to convince public opinion and to breathe a new spirit into woman that will move her to exercise her right without pressure; and even if we lose the first battle, we shall thereby be laying the first stone for the building of tomorrow.

Kaddoura: The responsibility for guidance falls upon the League of Women's Organizations in Lebanon, which comprises some 106 associations, and we have many experiences from the past: all our success has rested on the basis of guidance and persuasion, and the defiance of difficulties.. I believe it has become necessary for the said League to create a women's party embracing all the elements and directed according to a drawn-up policy.

Malik: I do not see the practical side.. I insist that we begin with the first practical step.

Kaddoura: I believe the practical step will lie in propaganda.. strong propaganda everywhere. In the tramways, in the salons, the cinema houses, and the streets.. Its slogan shall be: "He who buys you will sell you".. Dignity is more precious than money; and naturally it is the League that must undertake this guidance, since it embraces all the women's elements.

Qaranful: But the League is spread over several regions; how can we support a woman candidate in the South, for example?

Kaddoura: Our propaganda, I believe, will be her greatest support.

Tadros: I return to the subject of guidance.. I do not say we are too late for guidance — and there is a pressing need for it, because the Lebanese woman has not yet freed her opinions from husband, father, and brother. If we begin working now, we shall not have to say tomorrow: we are too late.

Nakkash: I know there are some women candidates, and I do not think we should oppose a Beirut woman candidate, for example..

Qaranful: I think the union of women's votes will have a great effect on the coming elections.

Nakkash: We want her to prove her competence to equal man in this right, at least once.

Malik: The educational guidance ought to have begun six months ago, but we can now undertake a general guidance.

Kaddoura: Yes; and I do not think man's level is so very much higher than woman's.

Tadros: But we want to offer a lofty example, and we shall not be content to follow the method he has pursued; rather, we shall lay out a new plan.

Fayyad: While we are at the discussion, we must take account of the candidates and guide woman toward "whom" she should elect among the men.

Tadros: This, in my belief, is very necessary so long as we have not secured a woman candidate.

Qaranful: This guidance must take in the educated women and the unlettered alike, so they may know how to elect the best.

Nakkash: Why do we stray from the line... It is necessary that there be a woman in the Chamber... I insist on my word, necessary: and it makes no difference whether the number of deputies is 66 or 88.

Kaddoura: It remains, then, for the women to stand behind a woman they believe in.

Malik: How?

Kaddoura: The League of Women's Organizations, for example, elects a candidate...

Malik: If Ibtihaj, for instance, entered the field, all the ladies would back her...

Kaddoura: I shall not go into the battle except upon an insistent wish from those around me, for a deputy's seat, like the practice of law, is held by mandate, not by pressure and the buying of votes... Nor can we go on saying that man is better when we have not tested woman's ability. And what people does that deputy represent who does not attend the sessions of the Chamber?.. Woman can at least mend such a state of affairs.

Malik: We can take the Municipal Council as an example to be followed; we counted woman among the luxuries, whereas today she is a necessity in it; and in the Chamber of Deputies we do not want her to confine her concern to women's affairs alone... Then, the campaign can begin this very hour.. We shall set out a model of the qualities of the elector and the elected, and "The Woman's Voice" is our stage for that..

Tadros: The campaign's effect would grow if woman backed it every week with a guiding speech, to make her voice heard by the public.

Malik: We need scores of speeches.

Kaddoura: I am anxious to keep this project in the hands of the League of Women's Organizations.. and I call for an extraordinary session to be held by the League to discuss the problems of the elections, and the necessity of woman's participation in parliamentary representation.

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With this proposal the seminar closed, and each lady went her own way... And we, hoping that the League of Women's Organizations will adopt this project, wait for the woman's voice to rise soon beneath the dome of Parliament, and to ring out bold, free... and sincere.