THE MOSLEM PEOPLE.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13646, 11 February 1913, Page 2

THE MOSLEM PEOPLE.

lii all'timce \and in all countries women Jiave m-ade history, but' never more'so than in the East, v.'liero men have-:jp:fton been " ( ,but pawns in the struggle... for powe^ . .waged by • -.wo-mon, secludccLin. the Jiairems certainly, but for. all tha,t convei-shnt with air that wa-s going oil arouri{£. tlh'cm. ', •The mainteiranco of indigent parents by. ;Mpsloms . .is. a lady of Islam, particuiarly that of mot|h<irs and grandmothers. :; Hence it i^'that, the pamiul cas?. s that 'are so. frequently met with i'n;Qhristiaii ; .couHtrie s of ue^lec£cd • parents -thrown "{upon elmrity is 6cldo'm ; met; with ambn'g Moslem people. The seclusion., of Moslem women, .'in-"stead-"of being a result' of tOieir degraded position, wrote Lucy M. J. Garne'tt,was,- on'the contrary, 'the'•outcome cf the respect and regavd er.tort;ii;H;d for them : by the ' men of' their country.. The veil ;and cloak of « Turkish woman •worn when/abroad, kept her safe- from msult or molestation, and in the harem she was sheltered';: from, people, of an ..alien race and religion."-; ; •;. ■ . • •

' Turkey has had her-poetesses whoso genius entitled -theifi to rank \vith the literary celebrities of the age. Turkish'1 -chroniclers and authors both contemporary and subsequent, with\>n^.accord pay tributes to the genius of Zeyncb, the. .daughter of an eminent' judge in Asia Minors, who wrote in the fifteenth century.* .She- *a S - mtensel.v patriotic in-her poems,' many of them are full of. fire-iand. pride of country. '-. Aliliiri ■succeeded her and, iikc Sappho, saii« of :Iqve; Then cmno Sidqi "in tlie ,tco:itJr century,: • mystical &i\i^r, FitM.ot.'jSultana, sisterof Mohammed*!!,' a woman of : m it,;i).eauty, high but •_al«o of afecct tragichistoiy. Some of: •t-hb poems of Leyla Hanum,*of the ninotccnth earitury period, appeared in Yiehua periodicals and to-day there are- other; Turkish 'women "' wim have

gains •• - name and place in literature, ins weir a^in education and political maiA 'tensv" ;".. ;■■' "-,< ■;,' •'■■.'■ ■ . ■ «

■ traditions, ciiatpriis, and literature,, It-is iftt '•■•surprising that Turkish;woracn of to-day should bo hr-«l-An"thr--aii-3rito.risß,lcve of country and should 'holfge intakingaii aotivo'jiitrif ,111 IIC7 <:.;;ti;,y. "'.,'"