TNT History Archives: Freedom for All! (Except Women, Of Course) (1908)

//Ed. Note:  Commenting in his newspaper column
about the new "Constitutional" regime in Istanbul in 
the Fall of 1908, Dr. Şerefeddin Mağmumi was struck
by the plight of women.

Sadly, the Istanbul of 2019 isn't much different :( //

"Meşrütiyet" click here for Mağmumi's initial 
reaction to the scene in Istanbul after the ostensible 
restoration of the Constitution in 1908.



  Turn around at your own risk.

I'm Thinking That...

“Hukuk-u umumiye” newspaper: 24 October 1908

I wonder, are these things we keep talking about, like freedom, justice,
brotherhood and equality, just for men?  Can't our women be a part of 
this, too?  In every official announcement and in newspaper columns 
this bitter and disgraceful reality is either denied or explained away. 

All of our women will forever remember this first holy month of 
Ramazan in the new era of freedom, because even one of them having
the best of memories could surely not remember  a worse month for 
women, even in the time of despotism. 

When I left Istanbul 12 years ago, at the height of that despotism, most
women in Istanbul had thrown off the veil, as permitted by canon law,
and walked freely in public.  But now that I've returned with the 
declaration of freedom, most women are back under the black veil.
Even so, these poor things can't walk around safely because of the
ever present sexual harassment of men.  


"Women's World" publication. Istanbul, 1908.

Whether they are alone or even accompanied by men, the taunts and
epithets hurled at them, and their honor and chastity, continue unabated.  
They are impeded from boarding vehicles and cannot ride in caiques
or rowboats.  At markets and stores, even in front of police stations,
women are subjected to verbal and physical harassment by individual
men or groups of them. Yet none of these deviants, whom the French 
refer to as "apash", are ever arrested nor punished in any way.

In short, women have no protection under the law.  Yet the government
never fails to have the neighborhood imams and chiefs warn women 
about wearing "revealing" clothing.  Actually, if such a woman were
to walk the streets the populace would have no authority, either in
canon law or in practical law, to harass her or punish her.  If the people
and, in particular, the male population, don't know this then our new
"Meşrütiyet" (constitutional) government should inform them about it.

If the incident that occurred in front of the Gedik Paşa police station,
as reported in the newspapers, had happened in another free and
civilized country the assailants would be charged with the equivalent
of murder.  Yet, the prevailing public opinion here is that such sexual
harassment against women is no big deal.

Is this the reason foreigners and civilized people reproach us and assess
that we still do not comprehend freedom and equality?



           It's the thought that counts...