NEW WOMEN OF TURKEY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 August 1924, Page 16

NEW WOMEN OF TURKEY.

Revolutionary changes have taken place in cue rives 01 'Turkish women since they uiscarded the veil a.s a sign ' A tneir emancipation. Mr rl. j. UreanWcil, Jinny j-.xpress ccvrespouaent, deals •••■i-ii ti.e progress made bv Turitisn woman si mo sue was iitt.e Potter tmvn a prisoner >n tne harem. Constantinople is not Turkey any more than li-icicpoci i a England/'" said a li ‘ ri Vf il „? V 0 c| t!ctcr. She is one of -i.e do liiiiusn women studying niedienie' here, and ol umc number 18 come troni tins city.

a l-o deep-rooted changes that have tancm puc.o among me women mre nuthmg short ot revolutionary. I l * l Kush women are now beginning to mim e in _ public, and wear evening dress and dance with men other than their husbands. They dance the latest nances with a grace one might expect but they smile cryptically when en© asks thorn where they learned to foxtro,fc an , t ( .sway their hip 5 j„ t |.© blues, anu mingle the sensuous laneour or the East with the intricate uance stops of London and Paris , - Nn knows iM- certain how 'they ,0.11 ned the modern dances—and other things but it is whispered in Peru that dancing instructors-irorn the Occident nave been .smuggled into those narrow winding streets of Stamboul, and that L-oni beni ml latticed windows have come the strains of gramophones i\ow on dance nights at the- Pcra 1 alace Hotel, and at the Tokath'an’s, one can see Turkish women /dancing with the friends of their family. They have not yet gone beyond, this, but the time will soon come 1 when it will not be thought remarkable for a. Turkish u oman of undeniable social standing to be seen dancing m cue of the Russian cabarets of Peru.. The “charchaf,” .the Turkish veil, is passing into the limbo of things forgotten. hirst ol ali it entirely hid the lace, then it was raised slightly; later it was worn very much like a. widow’s Weeds; now it is simply tied round the )ie..id, protecting the hair in a, manner • eiy much like English women wear a. net at the seaside to protect them liom the sea breezes.

°J 10 thing most noticeable- about the I. ui’kish women ol to-day is how they slick to the kohl, with which they <,ensefv blacken trie upper and lower eyelids. Jt is extremely bizarre tc> see i woman in the street .almost entirely Europeanised in her dress, but her eyes proclaim her country.

V ith the banishment of the members of the Royal Family of Turkey, numerous magnificent villas on the Bosphorus have fallen mro decay. They were the last strongholds of the Turks who still retained their harems. , Need lor a personal economy has payed a great part in reducing the number ol wives the modern Turk possesses. The Moslem law allows him four, but the Koran says he must treat each on the .same footing of viualily. Th is disposes of the legend of the “Sultan’s favourite wife.” Tho Sultan, no more than anv other Moslem. cannot have a “favourite” wife; in his eyes they must find eoual favour.

Th? .breaking-up of the harems, the reduction of four wives to one, and the economic crisis in Turkey have all conyobulod to another revolutionary nange in the lives of 1 urkisli women.