Week 12: End of Empire: Turkey

"A separate history of Turkish women's movements still remains to be written"

In End of Empire: Turkey, Deniz Kandiyoti talks about the transition in Turkey from a multi-ethnic empire to a secular nation state. This reading reminds me a lot of the Crafting an Educated Housewife in Iran reading in addition to parts of U.S. history. In Iran, women's education and participation in society ultimately became of importance. They were first viewed "as objects of political discourse and later as political actors and citizens" (42), just like this reading.  In U.S. history we see similar things happening such as the need for women in the workforce after WWI. However, the emancipation of women had not happened quite yet. 

With the emergence of the Turkish Republic in 1923 came the emancipation of women. In 1924 the ottoman institutions vanished one-by-one. Women were granted the right to vote on the local level in 1930, and at the national level in 1934. This was a crucial time in Turkey's history as it could present itself as a democratic country. The reading focuses on the progress of feminism between the Tanzimat  period (1839-76), where the Ottomans were pressured to Westernize, and the transition to a secular nation state. It wasn't until after the Tanzimat period that the woman question would arise and progress as it gradually distanced itself from Islam. There were many feminist movements that occurred in the 20th century. A few feminists even went as far as arguing pro-female emancipation. For example, Kandiyoti says that "'modern men' often felt alienated from Ottoman patriarchal structures which curtailed their own freedom considerably, even though women were the more obvious victims of the system" (26). I find this statement imperative, because some men who were not even the victims of oppression have argued for women's emancipation. This would have not crossed my mind. 

I think that understanding history and looking at its progress is imperative as we move forward. In this case, feminists its feminists looking at how women participating in politics and contributing to society ultimately concluded a unified citizenry.