In the press and literary works, the theme of the importance of women’s education and work was treated overtly. Westernist, Islamist, or nationalist intellectuals approached the subject from different perspectives and discussed them widely. However, all discussions in the press inevitably had an impact on women and their perceptions of life and marriage. In this section, I will explore the printed news media and literary works to explore their impact on Ottoman women.
During the age of reform, elites and intellectuals reconsidered the influence of education on women’s lives. Namık Kemal and Şemseddin Sami, for instance, were enthusiastic about women’s education, as the latter constituted half of the human race.291 Among the intelligentsia, feminists and Westernists were mostly worried about women’s education level, because they believed that women’s education was
290 Ekin Enacar, “Education, Nationalism and Gender in the Young Turk Era (1908–1918)” (M.A the-sis, Bilkent University, 2007), 149.
291 Mustaf Nihat Özön, Namık Kemal ve İbret Gazetesi: İnceleme (İstanbul: YKY, 1997); Tezer Taşkıran, “Şemseddin Sami ve Kadınlar,” Türk Yurdu, (1955): 946-950.
one of the solutions to the problems in late Ottoman society. Ayşe Kadıoğlu has argued that Westernists and feminists deemed women agents of the possible establishment of a Westernized society; therefore it was vital that Ottoman women were educated and got rid of the shackles of religion.292
The Westernists mostly held Islamic norms responsible for the plight of women, in that they believed the religion excluded women from social and cultural life. For instance, Kılıçzade İbrahim Hakkı claimed that offspring brought up by such excluded and uneducated women could not be counted on for the progress of the nation.293 Another Westernist, Ahmet Rıza, argued that progress in science and knowledge changed how people earned their lives. Besides, it had almost become an art to live in the new Ottoman society. Therefore, it was a necessity to teach basic sciences and information to women, so that they could survive in the new conditions.294
The Islamist writers’ worried mostly about missionary education, for they believed that missionaries were among the reasons for the decay of Ottoman society.
According to the writers in Sebil’ür-Reşad, wandering missionaries and teachers of missionary schools were spreading false beliefs about Islam and confusing minds.295 For instance, Şeyhülislam Mustafa Sabri complained about the fact that students in the missionary schools were trained by nuns. He observed a tendency for a wish to
292 Ayşe Kadıoğlu, “Cinselliğin İnkârı: Büyük Toplumsal Projelerin Nesnesi Olarak Türk Kadınları,”
in 75 Yılda Kadınlar ve Erkekler, (İstanbul: Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı, 1998), 89-100.
293 Hamdi Can Tuncer, “Kılıçzade Hakkı’nın Tesettüre ilanı Harbi” Toplumsal Tarih 66 (1999): 34-36, 35
294 “Ulûm ve fünûn terakkisi sayesinde husule gelen birçok ihtiraat-ı fevkalade heyet-i içtimaiyeyi beşeriyede usulü maişeti değiştirdi. Cemiyet içinde yaşamak başlı başına bir sanat oldu. Bu tahavvülü nazara alarak kadına, hususan valideye şu asırda bilmesi gereken şeyleri öğretmek, büyük şehirlerin adatına, hayatı içtimâiyyesine göre eğitmek lazımdır..” Ahmet Rıza, “Vazife ve Mesuliyet–Kadın,” in Sosyo-Kültürel Değişme Sürecinde Türk Ailesi Vol 3, ed. Hakkı Dursun Yıldız, (Ankara: Emek Gazete ve Matbaacılık Ltd., 1992), 1036.
295 Mustafa Gündüz, II. Meşrutiyet'in Klasik Paradigmaları, 253.
become a Christian among these female students, who were told about the benefits of confession in Christianity, and lack of it in Islam.296 Likewise, another writer of Sebil’ür-Reşad, Mehmet Fahrettin, stated that in the missionary schools, Muslim children were converted to Christianity through influence. According to Fahrettin, ever since the Middle Ages, Europe had been against Islam, and now, through education by missionaries, Muslim children were drifting away from their religion.
Fahrettin once came across a girl telling her parents that she was brought up with the manners of a Parisian woman and that she was educated to live in Paris; hence it was high time for her to go and live there. Fahrettin complained that missionary schools should never have been allowed and that the governesses and clergymen in these schools should not have been entrusted with educating and raising Muslim children.297
Islamists strongly argued against the idea that Islam was the reason for the backwardness of Ottoman society. For instance, İsmail Hakkı argued that in Islam, reason and a person’s health ranged among the most important things. For him, a civilization could progress only through reason and morals. Hence, there was no use in blaming Islam for backwardness. Hakkı also argued that the veiling of women did not block their education. He said that in some parts of the world women were not veiled, some even living almost nude, yet that these societies were still backward.298
296“…ecnebi elinde talim ve terbiye gören hanım kızlardan bazıları Hıristiyan kadınların rahipler vasıtası ile günah çıkartmalarına imreniyor ve beğenilmeye hiç de layık olmayan bu usûlün Müslümanlıkta yokluğunu mahrumiyet kabul ediyorlar...” Şeyhülislam Mustafa Sabri, “Aile Hayatı, Tesettür Meselesi, Kadın Hukuku,” in Sosyo-Kültürel Değişme Sürecinde Türk Ailesi Vol 3, ed.Hakkı Dursun Yıldız, (Ankara: Emek Gazete ve Matbaacılık Ltd., 1992), 1107.
297 “Pek çok Müslüman kız misyonerlerden aldığı eğitimle dininden uzaklaşmakta, Hıristiyan gibi davranmaya başladı. Hatta kendilerini eleştiren anne babalarına “ siz bizi İstanbul için değil, Paris için yetiştirdiniz, Paris terbiyesi verdiniz, Paris tahsili ettirdiniz. Biz de Paris’e gidiyoruz” diyorlar;
misyoner eğitimi tesiri ile evlerini terk ediyorlar..” Mehmet Fahrettin, “Feminizm Meselesi 1, Bizde Nisaiyyun Nasıl Türedi?” Sebil’ür-Reşad 1-8, 13-195, 30 May 1912; Mehmet Fahrettin, “Feminizm Meselesi 2, Bizde Nisaiyyun Nasıl Türedi?” Sebil’ür-Reşad 1-9, 14-196, 6 June 1912.
298 “..Mamâfih dinin terakkiye mani olduğunu düşünenler çoğalmıştır. Bazıları kadınların tesettürü ilme men diyor. Ancak bir takım kavimlerde kadınlar da hiç tesettür olmadığı gibi terâkki de
yok-An anonymous Sebil’ür-Reşad writer stated that Islamic history had seen lots of women in the ulema, such as the wife of the Prophet Muhammad Aisha and Aisha Ahmed’ül Kurtubiyye. The writer stated that there was no hadith ordering men to refrain from teaching women how to read and write. People should read Islamic history and be proud of these women scholars, rather than prevent women’s education.299
The mostly feminist writers of Kadınlar Dünyası were worried about the well-being of women themselves, for it depended on their chance to get an education and earn a living. But many people of bad will gossiped about educated women. For instance Aliye Cevat, an Istanbulite woman who lived in Kabataş, claimed that young girls were being tortured by ignorant residents of the neighbourhood because they went to high school and/or university.300 Another writer, Sacide, complained that if a woman got a good education, people called her a prostitute. These ignorant people continuously gossiped about the students of Dar’ül Muâllimat and İnâs İdâdisi. However, Ottoman society needed educated women who could also earn their own living, especially in times of hardship.301 Nationalism was the other concern of the writers in Kadınlar Dünyası. For instance, Hatice, who was a teacher in Konya, said that a nationalist feeling could only be instilled in children by educated mothers. Therefore it was a must to teach women, so that Turkey could catch up with progressive nations.302
The writers in Kadınlar Dünyası were also concerned about the marriage choices of the well-educated male elite, for, as mentioned before, these men did not
tur…” İsmail Hakkı, “Geri Kalmışlığımızın nedeni Dinimiz midir? Usulsüzlük müdür? Daha Başka Bir şey midir?” Sebil’ür-Reşad, 17, 429-430, 17 July 1919.
299 “Kadınların Okuyup Yazma Meselesi,” Sebil’ür-Reşad 12, 288, 6 March 1914.
300 Aliye Cevad, “Kızlar Hürdür, Serbesttir,” Kadınlar Dünyası, 82, 24 June 1329.
301 Sacide, “Kızlarımızın Çeyizi ne Olmalıdır?” Kadınlar Dünyası, 97, 22 July 1913.
302 Muallime Hatice, “Köylü Kadınları,” Kadınlar Dünyası, 51, 6 June 1913.
want uneducated Muslim women for marriage. H. Vasıf claimed that educated Muslim men preferred Christian women to marry and criticized the fact that there were not enough educational institutions in the Ottoman Empire for women. As a result, it became a necessity for women to go to Europe to get an education. Vasıf considered Lausanne the best among all European cities.303 However, other writers, such as Melihe Cenan and Nahide Asaf Süleyman, were against Muslim Ottoman women’s education in Europe. Süleyman mentioned that the girls who had gotten used to living in Europe would have difficulty adjusting to living in Istanbul again.304 Cenan therefore suggested that instead of sending girls to Europe, parents should work for the establishment of a university in Istanbul.305
The writers in Türk Kadını, on the other hand, were concerned about the educational curriculum given to Ottoman women. A male writer of the journal, Necmeddin Sadık, claimed that the Ottoman education program was transferred from foreign education curriculums without a second thought. Courses such as sewing were added to foreign curriculums to make them look Ottoman. Women were taught difficult courses in physics, chemistry, biology, yet they graduated without knowing how to do housework, cook, or raise a child. For Sadık, such an education would only result in depression among these female students, for they could neither adopt themselves to life nor to marriage, if they would ever marry.306
Perihan Saide, another writer of Türk Kadını, approached the education issue from a different perspective. Perihan Saide complained that in Istanbul, female education turned students into atheists. However, atheism was a great dilemma,
303 H. Vasıf, “Avrupa’da Tahsili Nisvan,” Kadınlar Dünyası, 89, 14 Temmuz, 1913.
304 Nahide Asaf Süleyman, “Mükerrem Belkıs Hanımefendi’ye Avrupa’da Tahsili Nisvan Yazısı Üzerine,” Kadınlar Dünyası, 82, 7 July 1913.
305 Melihe Cenan, “Avrupa’ya Gitmek Meselesi,” Kadınlar Dünyası, 93, 18 Temmuz 1913.
306 Necmeddin Sadık, “Kızların Terbiyesi” Türk Kadını, 6, 1 August 1918.
which could cost society dearly. The writer had lived in America and Europe for a while and had observed that female students who studied Darwin and Marx at school went to church on Sundays, for they believed that no one could live without a religion. However, in Istanbul the old methods of religious education had alienated female students from religion. Perihan Saide suggested the introduction of new methods of religious training, so that female students would not end up becoming atheists.307
As explored from the primary sources, education clearly changed the perceptions and worldviews of Ottomans, especially concerning family and marriage.
For the new generation of both male and female elites, who could also get education in Europe, and the female elite for whom education had become a must course taken in life either for better marriage prospects or to get a job, the traditional family structure and marriage seemed to now hold numerous disadvantages.
3.1.2. Urban transformation in the late Ottoman Empire and its impact on the