Abdurrahman Efendi Explains All About Turkish Women

Chris Gratien, Georgetown University

Leyla Saz, likely the Leyla Hanım
mentioned by Şeref

During the late Ottoman period, debates about gender and the transforming role of women in the modern family emerged within the Ottoman press. One of the principal concerns arising from these debates was an implicit and sometimes explicit comparison with European women held up sometimes as positive and sometimes as negative examples, and although women's journals did emerge, these debates, just as they were in Europe, were dominated by the voices of men.

This is an article saved as a clipping without explanation from the Ottoman Education Ministry files. It is about the upbringing of Turkish women. The author, Abdurrahman Şeref, offers a series of questions ostensibly posed by a curious European observer (and possibly posed by Şeref himself) and his answers regarding the role of women in society and the family. They are indicative of a type of feminist paternalism that was very widespread among bourgeois nationalists of the era.

The column begins with the question, "Would you please give some information about the family life of your women?", setting the tone for a conversation that will largely view the role of women in society as mothers and members of family. Şeref explains that essentially there is no different between European women and Turkish women as "daughters of Eve", although "the shining sun of the east and its gentle air perhaps add a little more passion and tenderness to their hearts." More importantly, Turkish women like all women are forced to conform to the education "we give them" and necessities of their environment. Sensing some potential objections from his audience, he then adds the disclaimer that although his statements will seem objective, "I know that everything is relative," before explaining his preference for family women.

Continue [ Part 2 | Part 3 ]

To Şeref, Turkish women embodıed a number of virtues. Devotion to family, faithfulness, hard-work, sacrifice, frugality, and the like. These seem to be taken as universal values, but one issue he points out is that because Turkish women have not been properly educated, they may need more guidance from men than European women do. It then becomes clear that to Şeref, Turkish women and girls are essentially in need of discipline.

The next question from the curious European is "I've heard that there are some in your country who are opposed to the education of women. What do you think is the source of this opposition?" Şeref explains that many consider the education of males to be more important and that for them it is enough for a women to be able to engage in written correspondence with her husband without seeking them of others, which only requires a basic elementary education. However, he stresses the importance of female education and points to the recent increase in girls' schools. As an example of some enlightened women in Turkish society, he points to the poets Fitnat Hanım (who had died almost 150 years before) and Leyla Hanım, the former being the daughter of the Şeyhülislam and the latter being the granddaughter of a kazasker. These two are examples of well-educated Turkish women who were great writers and authors of classic works. 

Şeref's thoughtful take on the importance of women's education reflects where progressive educators were seeking to take Ottoman/Turkish society during the early twentieth century but also points to the narrow framework of proto-feminist ideas during the period, which took for granted the essential purpose of women in life to be mothers and daughters. In Şeref's view, women's education appears as a form of guidance from a father, husband or by extension a paternalist state, and there is little mention of women's role in the labor force or in their own self-fulfillment. Likewise, it reflects a sort of insecurity that was common during the period that the lack of education of women reflected poorly on Ottoman/Turkish society as a whole and particularly its male leaders on the global stage.

Source: BOA, MF-VRK 50/33 (18 Z 1339)

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