Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 319, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1920 — WOMEN IN TURKEY [ARTICLE]

WOMEN IN TURKEY

77 of the Harem.” __ A f iwkrnnlw mziHoFn ■ causes of woman’s Independence, should make a tour of headquarters of the National GeoSS property rights for centuries, ana divorce is easy, our wno -in all respects—wants to be a Turk? to be pitied in many ways, it* is true, but considerabie pity for them has been mlsdfrected. For example, the Turkish women who now are to be •Emancipated’ have had absolute Control of their own property for hundreds of years, whereas the German wives cried in vain for such ‘emancipation’ under the kaiser.” ■ The bulletin quotes from a communication by Mary Mills Patrick, which gives a vivid picture of the condition of Turkish women before the world

war, as follows:' “It is a well-known fact that Roman law regarded the rights of the Individual without consideration of sex; a man or a woman was alike a citizen of the Roman world. This met the requirements of Mohammedan life, where do woman ever necessarily sustained a lasting relation with any man. “Therefore, during all the centuries of Mohammedan history, women have legally controlled their own property. They have been free to buy. sell, or alienate It without consulting any male relative. This has given them Independence of thought and an influence in business affairs that seems wholly inconsistent with their life of comparative personal slavery. “Enter a harem and there you see a Circassian b.eauty, who has been newly acquired by the tall, handsome pasha who has just passed you in the street The air is heavy with the odor of eastern perfume, and the black eunuch stands by the door to watch all who come" and go. The beauty herself is thickly powdered, with an elaborate coiffure erected by her numerous maids. Jewels half cover her arms, and she wears a beautifully embroidered negligee. There is. a languorous expression In' her black eyes, as she sits idly smoking a cigarette and sipping Turkish coffee. “Would you think, to look at her, that when she draws her money from the bank that she must sign her own check? These two sides of life have been wholly at variance with each other; but, as years have gone by, the thoughtful side has predominated among the more Intellectual Mohammedan women, until now they are ready to enter into the affairs of today with an understanding and vigor which the'world has never accredited to them. 4 . “It has been on the social side that Mohammedan women have suffered most under the oppression -of the past, especially from the frequency of divorce. A man could legally divorce his wife at any minute, the only condition being the payment of the dowry which was settled upon her by the hfisband at the time of her marriage. siSSriSe been made to prevent all possible progreus among them. Laws have been proclaimed over and over again for-

Sing Mohammedan women to atforeign schools. In this emergency they engaged governesses. Most of these governesses were aliens, and many of them were inefficient, and bad moral guides to so large a portion of the population beginning to think and question. The governess system obtained so much influence after a shorttime that laws were made forbidding women to have governesses. Yet they struggled on in an effort for mental illumination, reading, writing, talking things over among themselves, and Sometimes getting help from their bustbands and brothers.. They have, accomplished much, with so heavy a .handicap, in literature, science, commerce and politics."