The woman in white clothes walked up to the tribune amongst the hundreds of women in white. She tidied her white scarf softly and said loudly: “Pay attention to every corner of the world, we are the eve of a revolution. Be assured, this revolution is not going to be bloody and savage like a man's revolution. On the contrary, it will be pleasant and relatively quiet, but definitely productive. You must believe this, ladies!” The year was 1911. The speaker was Fatma Nesibe, a woman in her 30’s, who had a wide knowledge of sociology and history. She was not only the speaker of the ‘Feminist White Conferences Series’ organized with at least 300 participants each time, but she was also the leader of Ottoman Women Movement. She gave speeches on the crushed Ottoman women in the patriarchal society and called upon women for unity. When she said ‘Pay attention to every corner of the world, we are the eve of a revolution’, in 1911, she was signaling today’s women’s status. Turkish women's rights campaigners differed from their sisters in other countries. Rather than fighting directly for their basic rights and equality, they saw their best chance in the promotion and maintenance of Kemalist reform, with its espousal of secular values and equality for all, including women. “Our nation has made up its mind to be a powerful nation. One of the requirements of today is that we should ensure the advance of our women in all respects. Therefore, our women, like our men, will be enlightened and well educated. Furthermore, having an equal share in social life, Turkish women will walk side by side with Turkish men, each helping and supporting the other.” (Ataturk-1923) Legal equality between the sexes was instituted between 1926–1934 with changes to a multitude of rules and regulations. Women gained many rights for the first time, including the rights to vote. With abiding faith in the vital importance of women in society, Atatürk launched many reforms to give Turkish women equal rights and opportunities. The new Civil Code, adopted in 1926, abolished polygamy and recognized the equal rights of women in divorce, custody, and inheritance. The entire educational system from grade schools to the universities became coeducational. However, the Women Movement had begun long time ago before the republic’s foundation. In late 19th-century Ottoman society, a small circle of educated women started to become involved in public debates about women's rights. Women graduating from the first and secondary schools for girls, or educated by private tutors fought for greater access to education. Arguments were presented in utilitarian terms: since the family was the foundation of the country, and the mother the foundation of the family, her intellectual development was key to the development of the country. Following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, a new magazine, Kadinlar Dunyasi (Women’s Journal-1913-1921) clearly stated its purpose as “promoting women's legal rights.” It was outspoken: “Let us confess: today a woman lacks the rights to live and be free … her life is dominated by a father, a maternal or paternal uncle, a husband or a brother who takes advantage of traditions and customs. It is impossible for her to set a goal or an ideal for herself.” (1914) Educated women from the middle and upper classes also organized conferences such as the ten ‘white conferences' held in 1911 in Istanbul. These ‘white conferences', named after the white interiors of the mansion where they took place, involved some 300 women. The proceedings were reported in journals of the time. The keynote speaker, Fatma Nesibe, stated in one of the meetings: “We should look for the causes of our disasters in our stupid mothers. They had pity, they were tender and peaceful, and they did not like noise. Such a blind politics is this… Women are nothing more than a tool of pleasure.” Women's journals emerged to provide a public forum for the discussion of women's issues. In Terakki-I Muhadderat (Progress of Muslim Women, 1869-1870), writers discussed female education, polygamy and problems of discrimination. Other journals followed: Vakit yahud Murebbi-i Muhadderat (Time or the Training of Muslim Women, 1875), Ayna (Mirror, 1875 – 1876), Aile (Family, 1880), Insaniyet (Humanity, 1883). Fatma Nesibe’s discussion in one of her lectures reveals her considerable knowledge about the women's movement in the West. … Fatma Nesibe defines women as the oppressed sex and as a group whose existence should be developed for the happiness of society. This approach shapes her demands; she is one of those rare women who do not compromise in formulating policies exclusively for women. Ulviye Mevlan Civelek, a feminist activist of the era founded the Osmanlı Müdafaa-i Hukuk-i Nivsan Cemiyeti ( Association for Defense of Ottoman Women’s Right ‘). She also published the well known Women’s Magazine for 9 years in spite of financial difficulties. She wrote one of her articles in the magazine: ‘The men in our neighborhood equate women not as women but feminine creatures. And these creatures cannot get rid of humiliation and insult in everywhere such as ferries, restaurants, buses, theaters and trains as well as in the family.’ Civelek devoted her entire life to the feminist movement. Belkis Sevket, a member of Association of Defense for Women’s Rights was an English and history teacher. She believed that inequality between men and women was caused by women being prohibited to join the army. She organized a campaign to purchase new planes and ships for the military. She threw the notice papers from the air in Sisli, Uskudar and Kadikoy, calling upon people to dispel the needs of the army. As a result of her efforts, women began to serve the nation within the framework of the ideology formed in the process of ‘state-nation’ structure. Sevket finally made history as the first Muslim woman who got on an airplane. Mukerrem Belkis, another Ottoman feminist, wrote a column in the Women’s Magazine. Giving her home address in her column, she stated that she was ready to support women anytime. She argued the obligation of veil for women in one her articles; ‘Let us blemish the veil before it blemishes us! Let us tear it apart and chew it. Let us remove the black cloth which is ineffective and against our feelings. It is now time to understand this fact. Let us not be bloodless. Do not we have enough strength in our hands to tear it? What a pity… What a pity.’ One prominent Ottoman women's activist and writer was Fatma Aliye (1862-1936), daughter of the reformer Cevdet Pasha. Aliye argued that the oppression women faced when participating in civil life, including the strict dress codes, stemmed from social customs and traditions, not from Islam itself. Fatma Aliye also wrote a book, Namdaran-i Zenan-i Islamyan (Famous Muslim Women, 1892) about women who played an important role in Ottoman history, the first history book in the Ottoman Empire written by a woman. On the issue of polygamy she engaged in a lively polemic with a conservative writer at the time, Mahmut Esat Efendi. “If we believe that Islam has universally valid principles, we ought to declare that the monogamous marriage is the one enjoyed by Islam and that the verse of the Qur'an enjoining man to remain with one wife is in accordance with civilization.†Since Cenab-i Allah (the Almighty), who is the possessor of all virtue and knowledge, bestowed it to all of his subjects, male and female, (then) is it within the power of men to deny it to women?” Halide Edip Adivar, who was a contumacious female writer and the figure of feminist movement in the modernization process in Turkish Republic, had earlier founded Teali-I Nisvan Cemiyeti (Association for Improving Women’s Status)’ in 1908. When she said in one of her lectures: ‘At his moment, as I speak to you and you listen to me, it is certain that we make a history. Our grandchildren will talk about our hard and sincere struggle!’ She was aware of the importance of their act. In 1921, Nimet Cemil published an article under the title Yine feminism, daima feminism (Again feminism, always feminism). She summed up a sense of growing impatience: “Although, due to the feminist movement of the last five or ten years, some rights were acquired, we were not able to reach our goal. There are still some important rights to acquire. Especially in marriage, women's legal rights are far behind men's legal rights. How can a woman who does not even have the right to see and meet her prospective husband be an equal of a man who can divorce his wife any time he wants or who is completely free to take another wife while already married to one? If you approach this issue from a woman's perspective, you can easily understand how tragic it is.” Atatürk greatly admired the support that the national liberation struggle received from women and praised their many contributions: “In Turkish society, women have not lagged behind men in science, scholarship and culture. Perhaps they have even gone further ahead.” He gave women the same opportunities as men, including full political rights. In the mid-1930s, 18 women, among them a villager, were elected to the national parliament. Later, Turkey had the world's first women Supreme Court justice. In all walks of life, Atatürk's Turkey has produced tens of thousands of well-educated women who participate in national life as doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, writers, administrators, executives, and creative artists. Moreover, Turkish women lived for a long time without the knowledge of those who laid the foundation of legal rights, and the women’s movement in the country. Ataturk’s reforms for women were in fact a heritage from our great grandmothers. They waited in patience to be revealed one day within the dusty pages of history. These women challenged against the veil and the rig out that had been obliged to women in Ottoman Empire. Who knows maybe he was referring with his famous words to the first Ottoman feminists who seeded today’s modern Turkish women. “Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.” (M.Kemal Ataturk)
