FATE OF TURKEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1941, Page 7

FATE OF TURKEY

* i PART PLAYED BY WOMEN. FETTERS OF DARK CUSTOMS I With Turkey, for tb.e second time if j 26 years. a key spot in war developmen;, the world looks to Turkey’; ej women, no less than to its generals, foi ■ i decisions which may permanently af- ' I feet the international outcome. J For since the last war. the women of ' ‘ Turkey have shed the last fetters of ! dark customs which hampered them J for over 1000 years In Parliament, and ,1 other high places, they stand among • I the nation's leaders, striving for nat- : ional liberty, just as in other days - j they fought f"r the freedom, of women "j I...ess than 30 years ago comj mon conception of Turkish women—i xcent for the poor creatures thvm- , I selves--was hazily romantic, redolent , of the popular novel which told of , heavily-veiled Women, harems, cruel . Turkish pashas and heroic foreigners -I who came to the rescue of damsels in i distress’. For the Turkish, woman however. ‘ the yashmak, strange dark veil that ’ shut in the face and left slits only for the eyes, and the enveloping black feriji. or cloak were direct symbols , of an oppressive seclusion within harem walls under a polygamous and 11 slavish system of marriage. > The rescue of the pining women was I accomplished by a new Government of ■ the country, which swept away these old cruelties and gave to its women a status equal to that enjoyed by Western women. , So barbanc was that early woman- . slavery that it is recorded of comparatively late date that there lived a sultan. Mahmud IL. who felt disinclin- | ed to take over the burden of support‘ling his predecessor's wives. He there- . i upon had 174 of them sewed up in weighted sacks and dropped into the i waters of the Bosporus. , i Things of the Past. i Another mighty gentleman of this -iso-called romantic era was Abdul Aziz whose characteristic was his indulgence of his great fancy for blue-eyed beauties with golden hair. He had 1200 skives in his harem. Abdul's dress and presents account in the name of these ladies was round about £160.000 a year. It took about 7000 people to wait on .Abdul-Aziz. His kitchens had 300 servants. But these things are past. Women are now able to compete successfully with men in all walks of life —as engineers, architects. sculptors, painters, authors and musicians, and in business and administration. There are women physicians of the highest standard. women lawyers, women judges the outstanding Suat Khanum Hilmi, for example, a president of the Turkish Women's Union, was a tine leader), Turkey’s Parliament has its feminine deputies, and at times the number elected has been far greater than the women representatives in the House of Commons. Great stage artists have come from I their ranks; the beautiful Neyira Neyir has' been reputed the equal of the greatest actresses of other countries. Turkey has had its women pilots, too.! and here one could mention the distin-1 guished reputation won by Sabiha I Gokcin, one of the Great Kamal Ata-‘ turk’s adopted daughters Turkish women are seen on thej screen and heard as radio stars. I hey I are as capable at the wheel <>f a eari as they are at the keys of a typewriter} or calculating machine. They have in-i vaded every department of factory life although formerly. under the | Caliphate they were barred from all! crafts save the home-arts of spinning > and weaving. One of the greatest names in the his-, tory of the advancement of Turkey.; and certainly the greatest sponsor of! the cause of Turkish women’s freedom i from an appalling clutter of enslavitig - customs, was that of Mustapha Kamal ' Pasha, alias Kamal Ataturk - lhe Iroiip Man " dictator Turkey The real beginnings of the movementgo back to the 1908 revolution when, the Young Turks took powei. atidj some of the more educated women, <

peciailv the authoress Halide Khanum Edib begin’. to agitate for dre-s mfd social freedom The Grv.it War. with its demands «>n women as nurses and telephone opera-' tor' helped the break but st was the immensity of laamal Ataturk s sweep-1 ...,. ( e.that broke their chains for 1 Meeh »f the intrude of h"s i achievement is no doubt due to the v enthiiSM •!. <f the women them-; 'dw'- Although ..nly the daughters of. had hitherto enjoyed| sod ‘.hets mtl.Jli b’. govvfnvxses brought into the harem from, abroad women applied themselves! pji ~ .e -- that many ' n qualifying for bttlllanl careers. j ()■..<- of the loveliest and most up-toj da<.. f '.iu'ii! '-! < f.cnous beauts ; Madame Sakihvddtn who has in'r«>-| diiced m.ipy new dress styles ;ur»np h»-'- >■ m-’, y •.vomcit Many Changes. T koh v. II ’ ’••> ■ <-.'!i''t:il»-r j th,. ■■ ■, a ''■ '-<• reject Wll of tin la.! of tin' iv' ' i ■■•■' "he 'v;>-' .itaio • a.'i.i .11"",i ■’■; f- r ■ me;. ■ : s H i; <.•.»■'.■ ..re tiKiirii os fui ’«•? . ■ o . to < uilegt • • , o t ‘hvo . ! . sl "i':h,' ,il- 1 . ■ ■ . ' r ■ o ■ ’ ... hd ~ j o < it ' ': o-o i 0'.;,-. ;.< i ,-y <, ,- >;oc , ■ ■■ . men' io-.- f oti-md gt .-.-iv -he harem I ' t-< ;o -.- ' ? lap ll I :i ' ■ lie the i ■ | ;l.i: '• 0- ' ; --.o.!’■ are . o' heaii'i . 'o! bv 0,'00<.0-. ■ ; - - . -- o < .o . I ■ rga ■ ■ • i o. • o ’ o'o. o .-e-'o;.- o:i- at-qtslr-