FEMINISM IN THE ORIENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1930, Page 17

FEMINISM IN THE ORIENT.

emancipation of women. It was in the letter half of the nineteenth century that the women of the East began to stir from their age-long jleep, writes Mies V. B. Metta, in tho Empire Review. In the beginning they accomplished nothing because the times were against them. Now, however, they are asserting their rights against husbands and parents. Fifteen years ago it would have been difficult to imagine Turkish women wearing bobbed hair and short skirts, and breaking off their engagements upon the slightest pretext, but these things are done frequently to-day in Angora and Constantinople. This awakening of Oriental women is likely to prove not the least important movement of an eventful century. Law-givers in most Eastern countries have been very fair to women. Mohammed, especially, granted them legal rights which were not possessed by Western women until half a century ago. But Oriental men did not abide by the law of the prophet, and the position of women became unenviable. During the last 25 years the progress of Indiana women towards emancipation ha( been rapid and remarkable. In 1906 women, for the first time took a public part in politics by protesting against the partition of Bengal. In 1917 a movement began for the enfranchisement of Indian women. This was so vigorous that by 1924 they weie permitted to vote in municipal elections, and in 1928 the privilege was extended to include the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State. A Hindoo woman has already taken her seat in the Legislative Council of Madras, and in Travancore a woman has been appointed Minister for Health. Western education is spreading rapidly among Indian women. Many women and girls go to England and tho United States to continue their studies. Thirteen years ago the appearance on the public platform in India of an unveiled. Mohammedan woman created a great sensation; but now, more and more, women are coming from the seclusion of the purdah. Polygamy and child marriages are meeting with increasing opposition, and girls are beginning to demand a voice in the ’choice of their husbands. In a few highly 'progressive communities the Westfern system of courtship has been adopted. The growth of the feminist movement has been, more remarkable in China than in any other country in the East. There, 2000 years before the Christian era, an Emperor forbade women to attend public meetings; This edict remained a rigid law until 1912, when a revolution swept away that and other obstacles to their -progress. From that year they began to agitate for votes, and they actually adopted some 1 of the lawless methods of the British suffragettes. To-day the women of three large provinces arc enfranchised, and the movements are being pressed forward to include the whole of China. Girl students are particularly; active. • When the girl of a generation ago would have submitted meekly to parental edicts, her daughter disobeys her parents whenever it suits her, and snaps her fingers at tradition. Chinese women attend° international feminist conferences. Western education has spread with amazing rapidity. In 1996 only 500 "iris attended Government schools; to-day tho number has increased to 5,000,000. The younger women have entered wholeheartedly into politics. Many have fitted themselves for .profusions, others have gone into business and a few of the girls have actually qualified as aviators. In Turkey the movement for emancipation has made great progress since tho war. The veil is seldom worn now, and in some provinces it is a punishable offence for a women to wear the veil in public. Turkish women of high rank in Angora and Constantinople give dinners and balls in the Western manner. Polygamy has been abolished, and all couples before marriage must obtain a certificate, of medical fitness.