Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1913 — HAREMS OUT OF DATE IN TURKEY [ARTICLE]

HAREMS OUT OF DATE IN TURKEY

Only the Sultan Adheres to the Old Style Oriental Institution —Modern Turk Resorts to Divorce.

The domestic arrangements of the sultan are entirely different from those of his subjects. Most Turks have one wife; the sultan has no recognized sultana. Turks of high rank marry Into their own class; the sultan forms unions with women of slave origin. The ordinary man may not look upon an unveiled woman except she be his relation or servant; the sultan has the right to talk with any woman In the land face to face. Turks of position model their households more or less on the European plan; the sultan’s household 1b oriental. That does not mean that in the Imperial palace you would find women sipping sherbet or smoking narghilehs or clad in baggy trousers. On the contrary, you would find them smoking nothing more oriental than a cigarette, sitting on a European chair —and. yes. wearing corsets! But the code of morals is entirely different, says the New York Sun. The imperial harem is founded on the old court system of the Byzantine emperors and has an etiquette and law of its own. The first fact one must grasp is that the wives or favorites of the sultan have no Importance at all. They are nobodies The daughter of a Circassian peasant may be honored by the sultan’s favor and even bear him a child, but yet be distinguished by no other title than the commonplace “Kadin Effendl." Only the mother of the eldest son receives the royal designation of “sultan." her whole title being “Khareki sultan." Her dignity only results from her being the mother of a possible heir to the throne; that is, in the event that the sultan has no brothers, for the brothers hsve the right of prece-

dence as the elder male descendants. And the royal favorite of the moment will have transitory Importance on account of the influence which she may exercise over the sultan. Royal princesses are considered inferior to the mother of the sultan, who is the real queen of the little world of the harem, has absolute authority, a large staff of officials and the supreme title of “Valide sultan." Thus it happens that a woman of slave birth may, if she be the mother of an heir to the throne, eventually become the highest woman of the land. Every royal princess has her dalra. or separate apartments, slaves, servants and so on, the management of the household being given qver to her kalfas. or ladies in waiting—that Is to say, Turkish women of good birth who have remained unmarried. Royal princesses rarely take a husband of their own rank. They are generally married by the sultan to the sons of men of wealth and position, such as pashas, officers of state,high civil officials and the like, a policy which Is founded on a very practical reason, namely, that the arrangement makes the existence of a heridltary aristocracy impossible One of the paradoxes in Turkey is that the poorer a Turkish woman is the greater her freedom. The rich woman canont move a step unaccompanied. Bhe sees Constantinople only from the windows of her closed brougham or through a veil thick enough to act as a mask. She may dress as exquisltetly as a mannequin In a Paris dressmaker’s showroom, but she must not display so much as an inch of embroidery in public. When her husband wants to take a second wife, or grows tired of her and wishes to divorce her. he has both the opportunity and the means if he is a rich man. It Is not chic among Turks of any education to take a second wife; but divorce is re-

placing polygamy—a simple repudiation by the husband of his wife, provided he is well enough off to pay the nekyah or marriage settlement, which he is legally bound to hand over to her. The woman of the poorest classes can go out alone. Custom does qpt oblige her to wear her veil down. Should her husband, in a fit of anger, wish to divorce her, he must first of all produce th% Nekyah, the dowry, in ready money, not an easy matter for a poor man. The real danger to domestic happiness in the great mass of Turkish homes is the growing tendency of divorce, and a divorce wholly favorable to the man as against the woman. The payment of the modest nekyah arranged at the time of his marriage is a simple affair, and it is seldom enough to keep the divorced wife for the rest of her days. She is' forced to take refuge with her parents or to find shelter with some of her friends.