SOCIAL LIFE IN MODERN TURKEY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 150, 24 March 1928, Page 16

SOCIAL LIFE IN MODERN TURKEY

THE LIFTING OF THE VEIL

Five years ago, when I was the onlyperson of British nationality allowed to penetrate behind the long line of bayonets which separated Angora from the rest of the world, 1 had the privilege of discussing many important questions with Mustapha Kernel Pasha, the great ruler who has the destinies of Turkeyin his bands to-day (writes Grace Ellison in the “Queen”). We spoke amongst other questions of women’s freedom. “In less than two years from now,” he said, “every woman is going, to have her face uncovered and work side by' side with men.” Just as the Pasha had announced, in less than two years the women were given complete treedom.

Twice during the last-twenty years I stayed with my friend, Makboule Hanoum, wife of General Nadji. Pasha, the President’s military instructor, when her father, the most pro-English statesman Turkey has ever known, was grand Vizir. I had just returned from paying her mother another long visit in her Turkish home at Kouia, for harems have gone for ever. The comparisons I was able to make were interesting indeed In honour of my visit, and in order to get funds for the Turkish Red Crescent, of which she is president, my friend organised the first public ball

that was ever given in the sacred city of the Dancing Dervishes, and I shall always congratulate myself that I was able to be present on this most interesting occasion. In order to understand a little what Mustapha Kernel Pasha’s enormous relorm means, I must ask you to step back twelve years and come with me into my friend’s father’s harem. It is a large palace on the shores of the Sea of Marmora, and has one of the most exquisite views it would be possible to find. The house is divided into harem, or women’s quarters, ' and the men’s quarters for the Selemlik; “ and the separation between the sexes is very strictly kept. I could drive out with my friend, on which occasion I used to wear a veil, because it amused me to do so, or I could put on my hat, ; — borrow my friend’s husband or brothers and go wherever we liked, but my friend could never come with us. My meals I had alteratively with the men and the women, and when the Grand Vizir gave an official banquet, the ony part the women took in the proceedings was to dress me and look at the banquet through the little lattice - window.

1 My friend’s father had had three consecutive wives and twenty-five children. When his sons or, daughters died or any member of his family, evervbody took up their residence at the Pasha’s. And besides his relations and their children, he had many visitors who came thirty odd years ago and have never gone away since—in fac,t they are still there now. the Pasha’s widow .has inherited them. The first change .that came with the new reform was an attempt to better the health of the people. In the old days with a lack of air and exercise and proper diet, the women and children just died. The infant mortality has been as high as 85 per cent, and that in a country bled white by wars and revolution. To remedy this, Mustapaha- Kernel Pasha, -whose eagle eye

notices everything, has sent women to study- medicine at home and abroad, lie he bad Swedish Drill instituted in all the schools, has teachers from America to train the women in Home Economics, and has started children’s welfare centres under his own special patronage, wherever it has been possible. Turkish nurses, trained in the foreign hospitals, are teaching the mothers how to care for their babies on Western lines, and babies are housed and fed with good milk in the many tekes left vacant by the Dervishes, w.hotn the Pasha lias disbanded.

But to return to our harem. There must have been over ninety women living in some part of my friend’s father’s house. It is true, in those days money had not the value it has to-day, nor was it as evenly distributed, sand the women were content with a mattress on the floor, which was lolled up and put in the cupboard durthe day. To-day all this is changed. The women who once lived on the charity of the Pasha would be to-day-working in some capacity < r other. There is always the demand for teachers and secretaries. Added to this some are students of law or medicine, some are shopkeepers, others dressmakers, in short, all the work that was formerly in the hands of the Greeks and Armenians is now in the hands of the Turks, and a great deal happier they are in every way. There is no work now a Turkish woman may not do. "Will you let them become members of Parliament?” I asked the President recently. “Why not?” be answered. When I arrived at Konia my friend and her husband, and her other friends and their husbands, were there to greet me. How strange it was to see my friend sitting at the head of her dinner table, which in the old days was her mother-in-law’s place, without a veil and her guests all in evening dress.

I was present at the ball given in Angora by the Prime Minister, Ismet Pasha. This was the first ball ever given by a Turkish Prime Minister for the people of bis cwn nation as well as for foreigners, and all the Diplomatic Corps and their wives came from Constantinople to be present. Madame Ismet Pasha standing beside her husband received the guests, her arms and shoulders bare for the first time. Perhaps she felt a little uncomfortable —she is still very young—for she wore a scarf of tulle over her shoulders. When the President arrived she opened the ball with him. It must have been something of an ordeal for her, but she did it remarkably well, and. seemed quite unselfconscious. When the other aldies arrived they seated themselves amongst the other women, as the Turkish women always seem to do when they go to balls. Some of them also could not up their minds to take off their veils. When the President arrived,.- however, he gave them a helping hand. It was extremely amusing to see him calmlywalking up and removing the ladies’ veils himself. The women were flabbergasted, but what could they do? One noticed, however, that when they next, appeared in, public these ladies came unveiled. •

In the old days I used to. be par-

ticularly interested in weddings, and attended as many as I possibly could. In those days it was the parents who arranged the wedding and the bride and bridegroom met for the first time when their fate was signed and sealed. There was, of course, no falling in love, though often the “unknown fate” had a strange fascination. In some cases the young couple when they- met disliked one another and were very unhappy in consequence. A bridegroom never plays a very im- , portant part at any wedding, but with us he has to be present. In the old days in Turkey, he was conspicuous by his absence, and the bridal ceremonyconsisted of the bride sitting on a bridal throne to receive the congratulations of her women friends. To-day with the new laws, the Swiss code, all this is 'at an end, and the Turkish woman is allowed to meet and choose her own husband. I went to a marriage at Adana; the young couple were married at the Town Hall by the mayor. Both were present, and the bride was unveiled. I had hardly time to take my seat when the ceremony was over. ' Both the bridegroom and bride had been asked separately whether thev consented to be husband and wife, they affixed their signatures to a document, and it was over. By my watch it lasted exactlv five minutes. When I expressed my astonishment at the brevity of the ceremony, my- companion asked me what more I required; they were legally married, and only divorce could separate them. Another 'great change that I noticed between the past and the present was the very healthy life that my friend’s little daughter 'leads, compared with the existence of the little Turkish girls I met when I was in Turkey before. She goes to school like a little European girl, she works hard at her lessons, and when she is old enough she will have a profession as a matter of interest, if she does not require to work for her living. Her mother said to me, “How happy it makes me to think how different my child’s life will. be from mine, in spite of the fact that my father allowed me more liberty tiffin most women. When one sees all these happy children, and all these girls who will not even know what a veil means, one can understand the veneration that we Turkish women have for our great Ruler who has made this change possible and has given us all the right to take part in th? life that is going on all around us.”

Froken Marguerite Traugott has recently- been appointed Judge in Sweden. She has for some time been practising as a barrister in the High Courts.

A black cat is supposed by many people to be. symbolical W good luck. The black colour of a certain cat did not save it from the bad luck' of being consigned to what was, no doubt, intended to be a watery grave off the coast of Timaru, on Friday, but whether its colour had anything to do with its subsequent luck is not stated. Miles out at sea some fishermen saw a petrol case floating, and thinking it would be useful for firewood, headed their boat for it and picked it up. Imagine their surprise on opening it to find inside a large black cat, very wet, but still alive Apparently the cat had been put in the box and thrown overboard from some ship. The fishermen brought it to Timaru and liberated it.