END OF THE VEIL

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 126, 24 November 1932, Page 6

END OF THE VEIL

LATTER-DAY, TURKEY

INFLUENCE OF HAREM

LOXDOX, 16th November. Gone are- tho days of the seclusion of

the Turkish haiem, saysitho Constantinople correspondent of "The Times." Wnmen police, women barristers, and women judges are the latest proofs of the- emancipation, of the women of tho East.

Where, only a few years ago, the Women of ihc harem saw only her hus« band: and her relatives, she is now admitted to the universities on an equal footing with men nnd is eligible for almost all profcssi6ns. Such is Turkey under the rule of Mustapha Kemal, the modern President. '

Women to-day minglofreoly with, men in' restaurants, dance halls,''and cinemas, and even marry according to their choice. Divorce is becoming tho exception rather than the rule.

The "wives" o'f-the harom"'arc exercising an increasingly important in-.-fluenee on the character and rnincls of the'rising generation, though the ptia-sant-.-conservatively refuses to- discard .his": ancient habits, feeling that the "new women" --will not-labour in the. fields at his'command, or walk while he Tides on ,'a donkey. Turkish women are approaching: complete emancipation.: The women of Turkey even acquired a notablp yictoiy.at the expense of the West hvjtien! JSoriman Hanumj the Turkish -for -1932 was !?lcetpd'"'f^isß'^Uniye.rse.>'''-'.':vijr lien, she returned '.to Turk'oy v Hanura received an ioyatiou/comparable to th« triifhiph of a victorious'goneral. The ieception was not due to national delight at the success of a Turkish girl in an international beauty competition, but; to the proof that Turkey has finallydiscarded the shackles which prevented her.from, taking her place among tho nations. ,