THE EMANCIPATION OF TURKISH WOMEN
The emancipation of Turkish women is not complete, but has advanced
with remarkable speed. The restrictions which have kept them in
seclusion and ignorance have already been very largely removed. No
single reform that has followed the change of government has been more
radical or complete. Upon the retail trading streets of Pera, the
foreign section of Constantinople, you can see thousands of unveiled
Turkish women any afternoon and thousands more of women whose veils are
thrust aside so that their physical and mental visions are clear, and
they can look a man in the face without a blush of embarrassment or
shame. In Stamboul, which is almost exclusively of native inhabitants,
the innovation is not so general, but a stranger would scarcely notice
the difference. In other Turkish cities the same change has taken
place. Half the women of the empire wear veils now simply as a matter
of habit instead of preference. The majority of them wear the thinnest
sort of gauze in place of the impenetrable yashmak that they were
compelled to draw over their faces before the constitution. Indeed, the
average veil worn by the women of Turkey to-day does not conceal their
eyes or their features any more than the dotted stuff affected by the
fashionable women of the European cities and the United States.
This gossamer stuff is also in the nature of a compromise, rather than
a mask. During the first weeks that followed the revolution of July,
1908, nearly every woman drew off her veil and many participated in the
political demonstrations, as the women of Paris did in the riots of the
commune. And I was told that throughout the day and the evening the
windows of the residences were filled with unveiled faces, which looked
without embarrassment upon the people who were passing by. To-day
women who drive about in carriages discard the veil altogether; even
the inmates of the imperial harem, which, however, is not so radical
a change as would appear, because the new sultan is perhaps the most
liberal man in all Turkey. So many Turkish women were imprudent in
their behaviour immediately after the revolution that the thoughtful
ones called a halt and resumed their veils as a protest against the
indelicate and unwomanly demeanour of some of their sex. The minister
of police issued an official communication, with the approval of the
leaders of the Young Turk party, requesting women not to go into the
streets with their faces uncovered, and the managers of theatres were
forbidden to admit women to their performances. But such things usually
adjust themselves in time, and the experience of two years has resulted
in a sort of compromise, by which sensible women still wear veils, but
cover their faces only when necessary to protect themselves against
masculine insolence.
The use of the veil for centuries has been more or less an act of
piety, as well as a social custom. It is supposed to be required by the
Koran. I have never been able to find any passage which demands or even
suggests it, but that is the interpretation of the Mohammedan world,
and the association of ideas has made the veil a badge of feminine
virtue. An ordinary Mohammedan woman would no more go into the street,
or stand in the presence of a man who does not belong to her family,
without a veil than she would without a skirt or any other necessary
article of clothing.
This practice prevails throughout the Mohammedan world, but in the
larger cities, where the women of the foreign population have been
accustomed to go about with uncovered faces as they do at home, the
veil has come to be regarded as a badge of slavery, and women of
intelligence and self-respect have detested it as they would shackles
upon their hands or feet. This explains why so many Turkish women cast
off their veils and went about the streets with uncovered faces at
the first opportunity that was offered them. But the thoughtful ones
have settled down to a rational estimate of their condition and have
taken their fate in their own hands. They have decided upon their own
emancipation, but their leaders are wise enough to urge the necessity
of caution and to beg their sisters to avoid every form of imprudence,
lest too radical and rapid a reform should create a reaction.
The change, however, has been a long time coming. It is by no means
the consequence of constitutional government, although the revolution
furnished the opportunity. For many years the traditional Turkish
harem has been breaking up. One of the principal causes has been the
extravagance of the women and their love of fine raiment. None but a
very rich man could afford more than one wife. The French dressmakers
and milliners, who occupy a large space in Constantinople, invaded the
harems with samples and models many years ago, and are entitled to
the credit of being the pioneers of the emancipation of Turkish women.
English and German and French governesses have also played a very
important part in preparing the minds of their pupils and inspiring
them with ideas and ambitions which were incompatible with the harem.
French novels have had an equal influence.
All this has been realized, and the events that have occurred have been
feared. In 1901 Abdul Hamid ordered all Turkish families to dismiss
their European governesses and instructed the police to prohibit
Turkish ladies from visiting European milliners and dressmakers. He
forbade the importation of European books. He summoned a council
of Mohammedan bishops to prescribe the colour of the garments, the
thickness of the veils, and the shape of the shoes that the women of
Turkey should wear, but he was as helpless as Canute, the old Viking,
who only tried to brush back the tide with his broom. The only effect
of the sultan’s efforts to preserve the morals of his subjects was to
strengthen their determination to have their own way. I have heard
that it is folly to oppose a woman when her mind is made up, and
perhaps Abdul Hamid realizes that he defeated his own purpose by his
interference with the fashions of the day. No evidence is needed to
demonstrate that fact. He is a prisoner for life in a gloomy villa near
Salonika, while the women of Turkey are shopping without their veils.
The most important and the most gratifying sign of the times is the
eagerness of the young women of Turkey for education. The use of the
veil is a matter of the greatest insignificance in comparison with
the new spirit that is apparent everywhere among the families of the
higher and middle classes. Many Turkish women have acquired the French
language. A few speak English and German, which they have learned
from their governesses, but they are very few who have a knowledge of
books. But now every woman wants to know and she is seeking in every
direction for instruction that will aid her in performing her duty to
her husband, her family, and herself.
In an article in the _National Magazine_ of London, in the summer
of 1910, Sir Edwin Pears, correspondent of the London _Times_ in
Constantinople for forty years, who knows Turkey better than any Turk,
gave a very interesting review of this situation, and, among other
things, said:
“There is now being held at the great American College for Girls at
Scutari a weekly class of about eighty Turkish women who are studying
preventive medicine, the proper sanitary regulations for a household,
the management of children, and similar subjects of primary importance
to the sex. The lecturers are medical men, for the hekim, or doctor,
is privileged, and Turkish women may attend his lectures, while
conventionality would prevent their being present at lectures given by
any other man. I may mention here that no one has done more for the
education of the women of Turkey than Dr. Mary Patrick, the principal
of Scutari College. She is an enthusiastic teacher whose influence upon
hundreds of girls has been of incalculable value.”
Sir William Ramsey, the eminent Scottish scientist, in a book published
by him concerning Turkey in 1910, said:
“Robert College is one of the most remarkable creations of pure,
unselfish beneficence, guided by admirable common sense, that the
history of the world has known. It has been for more than fifty years
making an educated middle class among the Christians of southeastern
Europe and of Asia Minor. And many people who know the country well
believe that it has done more to render possible a peaceful solution of
the Eastern question than all the European powers and ambassadors. * *
* The sole aim of the American missions and of Robert College has been
to create self-respect and life in the people of this country.
“The American College for Women at Scutari, which is soon going to
migrate to new quarters on the European side of the Bosphorus, aims at
doing for the women of the various races of Turkey what Robert College
has been doing for the men. It was started as a high school in 1871, it
was chartered in 1890 as a college by the legislature of Massachusetts,
and it has also an imperial Turkish irade. The language is English and
the life is English or American, which in this case are equivalent; but
the native languages of the students are also taught, and (if desired)
the languages which are to them classical, ancient Greek, Latin,
Persian, and Arabic.
“Hitherto,” Sir William Ramsey continues, “Turkish girls could only be
educated at the college in defiance of the will and the commands of
the sultan, and therefore the number of such pupils has been small.
Only two Mohammedan girls have graduated. But the different races in
Turkey live side and side, and what is taking place in one community
is not hidden from the other--especially such important facts as the
sending away to school or college of the daughters of any family,
and the inevitable, although gradual, changes in the ideas and life
of the people that result from education. Many instances could be
cited of the imitation by Turks of new habits thus introduced among
their Armenian neighbours by the daughters returned from this college
or educated at the American missionary schools and colleges in the
country.”
Sir William Ramsey continues to say: “The writer Halideh Salih
is a graduate of the American College for Girls, and a writer of
distinction. She has frequently been described as the leading woman
in Turkey in popularity and influence. Her first published work was
a translation into Turkish of an English book, ‘The Mother in the
Home,’ for which she was decorated by the sultan. It always struck
me as remarkable that a Mohammedan sultan--and that sultan Abdul
Hamid--should be the first monarch to bestow such a distinction upon a
woman.”
Halideh Salih is undoubtedly the foremost woman in Turkey. Her father
was formerly minister of finance for many years under Abdul Hamid and
sacrificed his political position and prospects by sending his daughter
to the American College for Girls, because such an act was forbidden
by the sultan. She spent seven years under Dr. Patrick’s instruction,
graduated in 1901, and married a professor in the Imperial University.
“The Mother in the Home” is an old-fashioned book for girls written by
Rev. Jacob Abbott seventy-five or eighty years ago, and she translated
it into Turkish when she was a freshman in the American college.
Her father was so proud of it that he had it printed and circulated
privately among the families of his friends in Constantinople and other
Turkish cities, and, considering its limited circulation, there is
not the slightest doubt that this little volume of fatherly advice to
girls, written by a modest Massachusetts village clergyman, had as
much influence in the emancipation of Turkish women as “Uncle Tom’s
Cabin” had in the emancipation of the slaves. When the constitution was
proclaimed Halideh Salih wrote the leading editorials in the _Tanin_
newspaper, the organ of the committee of union and progress, at the
request of the editor, defining the policy and the purposes of the
revolution. Her articles became the platform of the liberal party in
Turkey.
She has written a great deal for the _Tanin_ since, and for the London
papers and magazines. She has a novel dealing with recent events in
Turkey.
Dr. Patrick bought fifty acres of land upon a bluff 400 feet above
the Bosphorus, behind the village of Arnaoutkeny, six miles from
Constantinople. It is the ancient seat of a pasha, and more than a
century ago was purchased by a rich Armenian, who laid out the grounds
in luxurious style. It has been occupied by his descendants for several
generations. During the last five or six years it has been leased by
the consul general of Great Britain. The sultan tried to purchase it
as a wedding present for one of his daughters, and when he found that
Dr. Patrick had an option upon the property, instructed his minister
at Washington to request President Roosevelt to persuade her to give
it up, but she declined to do so, and fought him off until he was
overthrown and then she closed the trade.
A large part of the property is in forest, venerable old trees as
dark as a druid temple; and a winding road leads from a landing
on the Bosphorus to the mansion at the top of the bluff, 400 feet
above the water, through a ravine. The mansion is in the midst of an
old-fashioned garden surrounded by several immense cedars of Lebanon,
said to be the finest in Turkey. Back of the mansion is a terrace
1,500 feet long and about one thousand feet wide, where the buildings
will be laid out in a quadrangle. They will all be of the same school
of architecture--free Italian renaissance and the material will be
stone quarried on the ground.
The central building, to be called Gould Hall, will be 176 by 80
feet in size, with four stories and a basement. It will contain
an auditorium, to be used as a temporary chapel and for literary
exercises, that will accommodate 700 people, a central parlour or
rendezvous for the students, 40 by 45 feet; several lecture rooms; a
temporary art gallery; the offices of the administration, and several
study rooms. It is hoped that some one will soon give funds for a
chapel, a library, and a refectory, as plans have already been drawn
for these buildings as a part of the general group. Space will be left
for them, but Dr. Patrick is confident that it will not remain vacant
long. The great necessity is to get dormitories where the girls can
sleep and rooms where they can study and recite, in order to relieve
the pressure from those who are earnestly seeking an education.
The rooms in Gould Hall will suffice for administration, worship,
exhibitions, and library until the greater necessities are provided for.
The second building, known as Science Hall, will be connected with
Gould Hall by an arcade to shelter the students in stormy weather. It
will be a memorial to the late Henry Woods, a Boston merchant, and is
being erected by his widow. The dimensions will be 150 feet and it will
be of similar design and the same material as Gould Hall. The interior
will be arranged for lecture rooms and laboratories for biology,
physics, and chemistry and will be used as a dining hall for the time
being, and one of the laboratories as a kitchen until a permanent
refectory is provided.
The next building, of similar design and materials, will be called
Rockefeller Hall and will contain sleeping accommodations for 150
students, two in a room. The ground plan is 114 by 50 feet, with
two wings extending in the rear, 50 by 35 feet, and it will be four
stories in height. There will be two more dormitories, each capable of
accommodating 150 students--a total of 450 boarders, in place of the
190 that were accommodated at the last term.
The twenty-first annual commencement of the Mektep Ammerrycolly
Kuzlaran, or the American College for Girls, at Constantinople in June,
1910, was a momentous occasion in many respects and especially because
the women of Turkey have been so far released from the restrictions
that have surrounded them that they are now free to seek an education
like men and are taking an active and influential part in public
affairs. The commencement was also of unprecedented interest because it
is probably the last celebration of the kind that will ever take place
in the old buildings in Scutari, a suburb of Constantinople on the
Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, where the school was started a quarter
of a century ago, and where so many good women have been educated to
mould public opinion in the households throughout the Turkish Empire
and the neighbouring states. Before another year is passed the college
will be at least partially occupying splendid new buildings, located
on a beautiful site on the European side of the Bosphorus, where the
work of construction has already been begun and is rapidly progressing.
Already the preparatory department has been removed to the European
side. With the change the college not only gains the advantages of
greater room and larger conveniences, but greater dignity and prestige,
pride of purpose, and ambition of achievement, which are the best
inspirations that a man or woman of an institution of learning can
possess.
Dr. Mary Mills Patrick, the president of the college, to whose ability
and energy and tact its success and influence is largely due, had just
returned from a year’s visit to the United States, where she had been
successful in raising funds for the purchase of new grounds and the
erection of new buildings which will enable the college to extend its
influence and usefulness. No one can realize so fully as that noble
woman the importance of the results she accomplished for the good of
the women of Turkey and the welfare of the Turkish race.
Dr. Patrick raised $350,000 while she was in the United States. Miss
Helen Gould gave $150,000 for a new building to be called Gould Hall,
and $25,000 for general purposes, John D. Rockefeller gave $150,000 for
a new building, Mrs. Henry Woods of Boston $50,000, Mrs. Russell Sage
gave $15,000 for land and $5,000 for a wall to be built around it, the
late John H. Converse gave $10,000, Miss Grace Dodge gave $10,000 for
the purchase of the land. Mrs. D. Willis James, Mrs. Henry F. Durant,
Mrs. John Hay, James Talcott, D. Stuart Dodge and other friends made
generous contributions toward the purchase of the land, the erection of
new buildings, and the general fund.
The Mektep Ammerrycolly Kuzlaran, as the American College for Girls is
called by the Turks, is now at high tide. It not only possesses the
most beautiful site on the banks of the Bosphorus, considered by many
the most beautiful sheet of water in the world, but will have a group
of buildings equal to any in the United States. It has been officially
recognized by the Turkish government and commended by the minister of
education as a model for Turkish educational institutions to imitate.
Mahmoud Bey, inspector general of education, told me several times
that he considered it an ideal school. He said it “had set the pace
and furnished the standard for colleges for women in the East. No
institution for women in Europe has a higher standard and its graduates
are recognized as among the most influential women in Turkey.”
The minister of finance delivered the address to the graduating class
and the American ambassador presided. A Mohammedan government is
officially contracting for the education of Mohammedan girls in a
Christian school to be qualified as teachers of Mohammedan children.
This is perhaps the most extraordinary event that has taken place in
the educational world for many years and indicates the radical changes
that have taken place in the Ottoman empire.
A great boom in the education of women is about to begin in Turkey.
The American College for Girls has been the source of inspiration and
the ideal. Everybody agrees that the most remarkable change in social
conditions caused by the revolution in Turkey has occurred among
the feminine portion of the population, and it is conceded that the
wives and mothers of the Young Turk party had a powerful influence
in bringing it about. During the anxious months of conspiracy and
preparation many high-born Turkish ladies worked with enthusiasm
and intelligence for the cause of liberty. Some of them acted as
messengers, carrying concealed about their persons papers which,
if discovered, would have meant their death; others afforded the
revolutionary committees opportunities for holding their meetings and
furnished those who were in danger means of escape. Twelve thousand
spies in the employ of Abdul Hamid were unable to outwit the women of
Turkey in their work, and the leaders of the Young Turk party concede
that they owe their success largely to the assistance of their wives
and sisters and mothers.
It was not the work of a day, however, or a year, but of a generation,
and in the preparation of the women of Turkey for the performance of
this patriotic duty the American College for Girls at Scutari has been
one of the most effective agencies. Its president, its faculty, and its
alumnæ have been engaged for a quarter of a century in a far-reaching
propaganda to convince the women of Turkey that they are entitled to
light and learning, and the results are seen in the eagerness with
which the daughters of the foremost families of the empire are seeking
an education similar to that which English and American girls receive.
It is purely an American institution which began in a small way
twenty-five years ago, and for all those years has offered the only
opportunity for a higher education within the reach of the young women
of the East. Among the faculty are graduates of Cornell, Wellesley,
Barnard, Middlebury, and Smith colleges, and six of the alumnæ of the
institution are on the corps of instructors.
“You ask if there has been any difference in the conduct of our
students since the constitution,” said Dr. Patrick in reply to my
question. “I have noticed a much greater largeness of ideas and a much
wider scope of ambition since the adoption of the constitution has
opened new opportunities to them. The change is wholly favourable.
The new government is decidedly in favour of the education of women,
while Abdul Hamid was stubbornly opposed. It is favourably disposed to
the American College for Women. Djavid Bey, the minister of finance,
delivered our commencement address. Nedjneddin Bey, minister of justice
in the cabinet, sends his daughter to us, and we have five students
whose tuition is paid by the government. We have just received an
application from the government to buy our property in Scutari when
the college moves to its new site, in order that a school for Turkish
women may be continued in the place where one has existed for so long.
This could not have occurred before the constitution, and is sufficient
of itself to convince any one of the feeling of the Turkish government
toward our work.
“Several of our graduates are the wives of men who have been active
in the development of Bulgaria, members of the cabinet and members of
parliament, and I do not know how many had an active part in the recent
revolution in Turkey. At that time we had only two Mohammedans among
our alumnæ. Since then we have added another. Both of these took an
active part in the recent revolution, consulting with the men leaders,
who sought their advice and suggestions, writing for the papers, and
even speaking in behalf of the reform. One of our Mohammedan graduates
has already become a power in political circles of Constantinople. I
refer to Mme. Halideh Salih, who writes for the newspapers constantly,
discussing leading questions with great ability, and her advice is
often asked by the political leaders and the statesmen of Turkey.
“The principal races represented among the students of the American
College for Women are Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Turks, the
proportion of each being not far from equal. It is a new thing,
however, to have so many Turkish girls in our college, and everybody
will be interested to know that a Turkish girl leads the preparatory
school in scholarship. She has been in school only one year, but
during that time has finished all the courses except the last in the
preparatory department.
“During the last year one fourth of all our resident students were
Turkish girls, although it was their first year of freedom--the first
time in history that young women of Mohammedan families have felt able
or willing to go openly to Christian schools.
“Several of our alumnæ have studied for the medical profession and are
practising with success. Until now the conditions in Turkey have not
permitted women to enter into other professions, but that will soon be
changed.
“The present Turkish government is making praiseworthy efforts in the
direction of education,” continued Dr. Patrick. “Reforms have been
instituted in the Turkish University for Men, in the Galata Serai
School, and a large normal school for girls organized in Stamboul by
Mme. Halideh Salih, to whom I have just referred. She has practically
taken charge of it. The department of education is now a careful
and conscientious body of officials who have taken in hand the
reorganization of the different schools and are planning an educational
system similar to that in other countries.
“The visits of the parents of the Turkish girls who have come into our
school this year have been extremely interesting. Invariably they say
that they have long wished to send their daughters here, and they are
curious to see how a woman’s college is conducted. They inspect the
houses and the grounds and express themselves as very much pleased with
what they see. The social position of our Turkish students varies from
that of a cabinet minister’s daughter to the merchant class, but for
the most part they come from cultured and progressive families. Several
of the girls had a knowledge of English or French when they came to us.
“It is impossible to put into words the enthusiasm which has been
awakened among the girls since the political change. The Armenians
are especially enthusiastic. You know that under the old sultan it
was forbidden to speak the name Armenia, but our girls from that
province organized a society and gave a concert consisting of Armenian
folk songs which were formerly forbidden, but since the constitution
have been brought out of various monasteries or Russian homes where
they have been hidden. The meetings of the society have been devoted
to the study of Armenian history and literature. Two seniors wrote
their theses along the lines of Armenian history, and are talking of
beginning research work into the remains of ancient Armenia.
“An enlightened study of history has long been forbidden in Turkey,
although a garbled version has been taught in the schools. Now that all
restrictions are removed it is possible to offer the students a wider
range of reading and discussion and we have endeavoured to give the
Turkish and Armenian girls such a breadth of knowledge of their own
national history as they have never been able to enjoy before.
“The opportunities for people of the lower classes to send their
children to school are so meagre and competent teachers in Turkey are
so few that our students realize the tremendous opportunity offered the
graduates of the American college who are Ottoman subjects to assist
in the education of the people. We have been greatly handicapped in
receiving Turkish students because they have received no elementary
education in their own schools and in their own language.
“It is impossible for those who have not lived in Turkey to realize
what the changes mean and what freedom means. During the preceding
year, for example, we were advised not to have the simple constitution
of an association of our girls put into print, as it would be unsafe
for them if by accident a printed copy should be discovered. But that
is all changed now and we are practically as free as the schools of any
European country.
“The whole country, suddenly awakened to the importance of education,
is filled with a desire to study, and young men and women of all
classes are eagerly demanding a share in the benefits that education
gives. The most serious part of the situation, and a lamentable fact,
is that there are so few Turkish teachers ready or competent to impart
instruction, and already a plan is on foot to send groups to Europe to
be trained. Several night schools have been started in the city, where,
in the absence of other instructors, leaders of the Young Turk party
have themselves undertaken the teaching.
“The Mohammedan women are no less eager than the men, and they
naturally turn for help to this college, which for so many years has
been the only institution for the higher education of women in all
countries in the East. We are ready and able to give them the education
they so eagerly desire, but our quarters are so crowded that it is
impossible to accept more than a small number of the many applications
for admission that we receive. In spite of the knowledge of the present
overcrowded state of the college many Turkish women are so anxious that
their daughters shall share in the new life that is opening to the
women of Turkey that they persist in coming to Scutari to beg us to
take in their daughters. And when they get the inevitable answer that
there is no room, the girls frequently burst into tears, while their
mothers have difficulty in concealing their disappointment.
“When we get into the new buildings on the other side of the Bosphorus
one of the first steps will be the establishment of a normal school.
Even now, in the limited space at our disposal, we have the nucleus
of a normal school in five Turkish young women sent to us by the
government to be trained for teachers of Mohammedan children. Think of
training teachers for Mohammedan schools in a Christian school, and you
will have a slight suggestion of the extraordinary changes that have
taken place in Turkey.
“I am often asked what is the use to educate women for the harem? But
you must know that the character of the harem has entirely changed
under the new régime, and the women of the harem are now at liberty to
learn and to read, and to work, and even to come into contact with the
outside world; to participate in the movements of the day, and even
to influence them. With this liberty and this continual increase of
opportunities it is even more important that the women of the harem
should be educated than any others.
“It is true that the Turkish woman is still more restricted than those
of the European countries and the United States, but the day of her
complete seclusion has passed forever; the barriers that confined her
from contact with the outside world have been removed. She is no longer
ignorant; she no longer is kept from a knowledge of what is going on
around her, and she will have no lack of influence in the development
of Turkey in future years.”