Women participate in the electoral system in the “Rainbow over the Levant”
Posted on: April 21, 2024
Novel set in 15th century.
Women were to be allowed to be candidates in any electoral system for the municipality or the chamber of deputy. The voting right to every citizen who was eighteen years of age regardless of the voter’s marital status such as being single or staying with his parents or not having a steady income was to be the law of the land.
Any religious laws that abridged women rights were discussed and critiqued.
The bottom line was that if God provided men with specific rights like marrying more than one woman in some religions, then women had equal rights to marry more than one man in other religions.
This concept did not make much logic in our tradition but offered a fertile ground for dialogue that was totally lacking on gender discrimination.
The concept of taxation without representation was being argued as illegitimate and pressures for political reforms to elect representatives who were cognizant with the laws were making steady inroads in the status quo.
The First Emir Antoun was secretly behind this wave of demands and encouraged the exchange of ideas by staying above the fray and admonishing the sanctity of freedom of expression as the ultimate weapon for change and development.
The new political party had to cater to the intellectuals in order to disseminate the new principles and social values.
The First Emir then promulgated the urgency to build and staff art schools of music, acting, painting and sculpting in every major town. He also worked on the intellectual vanity by erecting two imposing museums in Byblos and Beirut for artifacts, industrial machineries and achievements in all sectors of artistic endeavors.
This was the most glorious period in the cultural development in the Levant society; freedom of expression was carried far, which almost broke many taboos in topics for discussions; formal cultural circles were spreading among elite families and endeavoring to dissect documents, articles and positional treaties.
Reason was pinned against religious dogmas and the seed of dissention was taking roots within the polarized extremist positions.
Adonis Diaries 
Leave a comment