TITE SUNDAY OliEGONIAN, PORTLAND, FEBRUARY 12, 1922
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Harems Losing Caste Among Intelligent Turks Who Are Assimilating Western Ideas.
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f j I t1 harem wife.
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CWTlht. 19? ThompMn Pvatar Serv
io. Ail Rlht Resemd.)
ARTICLE NO. J.
netmi coodlttona. rcent!y m1 u x
taadad arry of the oM Turkiah empire
in order to C at th truth rvcardin
th xltoc of hArcrna and of traXfto
tn rtrla In Tnrkor. Br pormmanca and
tat aba raada tmportant dlacovmna wliicn
how Umu cab4ftd rporta of tta diaap
tiHtfiac of the harema are untrue. In
bar fHOTloos artlclra aha haa told of tha
"liaaal of hararn lifa and of tha sala of
rtrla for tha harnma. and haa outllnad tha
ramaon mr inia new rorth. In tha nrra
ant article aha taUa of tha faliura of tha
noaarn aarean.
' ARE MS exist In Turkey today,
out they are failures.
A harem is based on the Idea
f tha subjugation of many women
nd tha elevation to godship of on
Ban. frequently fat.
The old harems were not failures.
The first four wives, according- to
stories, would gather in each other's
rooms to chant the praises of their
one husband. The old harem was a
Treat success because the women be
lieved men had a right to polygamy,
and tiat women ware born to abne
gate themselves.
For tha more Intelligent class, tha
tiarem is rapidly passing.
"It was tha theory of male god ship,
ornamented with Jewels, veils, se
crecy, autocracy, religion and passion
that made harem life satisfactory to
my grandmother and mother." said a
leading Turkish feminist. Madame
1 Bey. who at the aire of 31 is a
grandmother. Her first marriage
was with an official of the saltan's
entourage, who kept a harem I
daughter by him has now married and
has a child. Madame L Ecy later
divorced her husband and married a
Turk of Intelligent and progressive
Ideas. Her days are now spent in
propaganda work among Turkish
women and particularly among the
m-omen of the harems.
The women in the old harems
lived in a spell. But travel and edu
cation broke the spell. When thej
were allowed to travel with their
daughters on the trains and see the
world, liraltedly. the daughters grew
up with another idea of married lifa
than their mothers enjoyed. That is,
they did. If they were intelligent."
The Retreat'' the moat brantlral at
the snail aalarra of the sultans.
girl a type frequently
in Constantinople.
Haraaltes Afraid
Madams L Bey sighed. "Many
Of them are stupid and afraid. They
are afraid to reach out for freedom,
afraid of their husband's frown,
afraid of the priest's criticism.
"And those who live In harems art
guarded, by their husbands against
conversation with fire-brands like
me." And the grandmother of S3
years smiled delightfully "It makes
them hard to get at. My father's
having been admiral of the late sul
tan's navy gives ma a social position,
though, which I use as a wedge in
soms cases. The husbands do not
dara refuse to let the daughters of a
sultan's favorite call upon wives, who
are usually only beautiful peasants
from Georgia!" Her smile had in it
aareasm.
"Tou see. our grandmothers' beauty
built up harems. Now we. the grand
daughters, tear the harems down
with our tongues."
It Is the women who proselyte
against the harems.
For harem In Turkey today are
Impossible without the slavery of
Turkish women.
And the Turkish women who are
intelligent fight against the subjuga
tion of the less intelligent women as
If their subjugation cost the intelli
gent woman pain.
After lil only that Is, after the
young Turks got power and took
over the reins of the revolting Turk
ish government the Turkish women
started to travel and read French
discouraged from going to the mosque
oftener than once a day. Their hus
bands can go seven times a day and
pray for their wivesxif they choose to.
No wonder harems persist.
There has been a conspiracy against
tha Turkish woman up until the last
few years. And the present war is
aiding the conspiracy by keeping
ive harems a few years longer.
But the truth will out, sooner or
later, war or no war.
Harem Spirit Survives.
Perhaps the keenest propaganda
carried on against the harem spirit
is aimed at the Turkish husband who,
though he has only one wife, forces
her to live a la harem.
He makes her wear a veil. lie does
not allow her to go shopping except
with his permission. He demands an
account of her every act. She Is his
harem though she Is his only wife. In
modern dress, and not one of fonr
wives and ten odalisks In flapping
trousers and chiffon scarves.
One wife can make a harem.
"Let me tell you an amusing story,
begged Madame L. Bey.
"it Is about a Turkish husband who
kept his wife a la harem.
"I laugh when I recall it, though
it Is sad.
"The Incident took placo just three
years ago.
"Thia pasha had a wife: we will call
her Alsrre who loved him dearly; so
dearly that she was willing to apolo
gize for him. That is the height of
domestio love.
"She was willing to try and tell
us modern Turkish women that ha
was broad-minded and gave her free
dom. This was not true. He forced
7 M
i
1
IK,'. Ti 'i
' .isf
ways Interesting. Find out what the
women dp, and you have the keynote
to the social development of a nation.
"Women In a modern harem do the(
things that the ordinary 18 or 20-year
American flapper does. Flapper pas
times prevail In the modern harem
just as they did In the old.
" 'Sweet idleness' Is the motto of
the harem wife.
"I can tell you wliat is done in the
harem of the nephew of the sultan.
I cannot give his name. But his
not appear in public with their lord3.
It was contrary to the social ruling.
Taklnsc Kafe.
"Sometimes the harem wives go to
the cemetery for an afternoon's di
version. The cemeteries take the whose governmental officer he was.
place of parks in Turkey. There are
Tnrkish crtris on altonping tone. These
are modern sir Is in national Til Tit
ian costume.
Chistlan culture has made old-fash-ione
harems unnecessary.
The modern Turkish man of the
upper classes haa had his education
in the Latin quarter In Paris, while
most of the modern Turkish women
have got theirs by going to tha Amer
ican' college for girls. This institu
tion, founded and run by American
missionaries, is a great achievement
and has done much to advance women
in the east.
Halideh Edlb Hanoum, the leading
Turkish feminist, is a graduate of
this institution and has two eons at :
Illinois university. At preoeant she Is
down In Anatolia helping the Turks
run the war. She has been threatened
innumerable times In the past with
exile If she didn't keep her tongue In
her cheek. That Was before she was
famous. Now the Turkish men point
to her proudly.
Aliah Hanoum (hanou.m means
"woman"; Miss and Mrs are not used
in Turkey) is a Turkish writer whose
propaganda against the face veils
made her famous and led to the drop
ping of these unattractive features
by such women as have dared in the
last few years. It Is said1 that after
having fought the face veil for years
her head veil blew over her face In
a winter wind- one day and she bor
rowed a pin from the wife of an
American missionary to pin it back
so that no one would think she was
wearing a veil.
A Leading Feminist.
Madame Hurshid Bey is another
leading feminist whose intelligent
work among women in harems and
among men in politics has aided the
advancement of her country. She Is
a woman of charm, beauty and intel
ligence. She is not afraid of the
Turkish government, its institutions
or the Turkish mei. One has to be
afraid of nothing to be a successful
feminist in a country where only very
recently women were dropped down
stone wells for nothing more serious
than winking at a male passerby.
She had her education from a father
who was not afraid of the sultan.
When the sultan, thinking she had
achieved young womanhood told her
father to have her put on a veil and
quit wearing a child's hat, her father
very reverently told the sultan to
mind his own business. He nearly
lost his head. When the sultan com-
at the Sweet Waters of Europe or the
Sweet Waters of Asia. These are like
your Central Parl in your New York
city I imagine, only more quiet. The
children go to the picnics, so do the
servants, the maids, the men who
drive the carriages, or tatarabasl, as
tho 'fortyniner' wagons are called.
s - t
US
Gypsy fortune teller
popular person with the karemites.
novels.
Travel ana Xavela. irue. e lorceo H lived in an apartment house, true Turkish spirit. He bought the
The ahriek of the engine whistles ner lo account for-her every minute But Aishe. his wife, tried to protect chain and handed it to her and
and the paper-back French novel have when he came home from the sultan's her husband from Madame H 's strolled out, she following at his
emancipated them as much as any- Plac n 'was an officer in the sul- criticism by saying she would appear heels.
thing else. tans imperial government and re- anyhow.
The encine pulled them to new Iusa o let ner waik by his side
no parks. By the tombstones the
wives and servants it, talking. The
Turks, by nature, are indolent. Tak
ing your kafe (pronounced like waif)
wives' pastimes? I can tell you of Is the national pastime for men. It
them," Madame li Bey told me. means, literally, doing nothing, just plained that the woman who was to
"In summer time they go .to picnics dreaming. So deep into the social be Madame Hurshl Bey should ho less
with their servants and other friends usage has the word kafe gone that modern in her views about harems
when you ask a person where they and women the father again told the
live, you say, 'Where do you take sultan that the daughter's education
your kafe?" was the father's affair, not the ruler's.
"When the women go to the ceme- This time he was dismissed from the
teries they take their kafe. They do sultan's cabinet. Then, the third
not sew. They do not talk overly time, he refused: to give up some Ar-
much. They Just sit. menlan slaves to the soldiery during
"One of the features which has the Armenian massacre In Constan-
Ferhaps the wagon is replaced by a broken up the modern harem is the
motor car. depending on the wealth attitude of the wives toward those
of the city pasha, whose wives are on women who are not wives. In the
the outing- These Sweet Waters are old' days the odalisks had their stand- opinions makes fatherhood trying in
located one on the European, one on ing. They were, if they were slaves, Turkey. .
the Asiatic side of the Bosphorous. entitled to their freedom after seven
The sultan has a palace near tho Eu- years. If virgins, they could be de-
ropean side. manded in marriage. If not, they had
"They take lunch. They eat to be liberated and given a definite
almonds and almond paste cakes, pit- position in the pasha's establishment,
aff, made of rice and kebabs, which For there were no 'extra women in
are roasted with bits of mutton After the old days. The broad gates of following quotation: "The Turk's re
lunch they talk. polygamy made the relation between ligion has forbidden him to drink or
"They never sew. They only read the Turkish master and each one of to gamble. To dance was to lower
when they are home end have noth- his women a thing established by himself to the rank of a slave. The
Ing else to do. They talk about their law. There were no illegitimate chil- aters have been unknown in, Turkey
Parisian clothes, which they wear dren, and few cases of violence to a until of late years. The Turkish man
only In the privacy of their own young girl. Any Turkish man who has had neither the hunting of big
rooms. They wear the national cos- was responsible for the maternity of same, cIuTds, tennis or golf to occupy
young girl had to recognize the him. He has been forbidden to travel
child and care for it and its mother, without imperial permission until the
past few years. His taste for art has
been nil.
tinople. he was assured he would be
exiled.
Standing up for one's daughter's
A Real Explanation.
The real explanation, of the unin
telligent Turkish man and his devo
tion to women, as a pastime in for
mer years, is best contained in the
"He took her to a sweet-meat shop
tume in public.
Love to Gossip.
"They talk scandal.
"They talk of the occasional cine
ma which they see. When special
women matinees are given at. the
local cinemas, the women can go, but
land where women lived as women. wh' they went on the street to- help
This is how she did It with my and bought her candy and cakes. The not when men are present, without
The paper-back novel showed them
wives who ruled as queen in their
bom, alone, with no four other
queens in the next four rooms to
borbcr their power.
Hngines and education, paper-back
novels and visions of homes In which
something other than polygamy
reigaed these two factors have
helped make harems a failure.
For up to within the presidency
of Theodore Rooaevelt. in the Amer
ican woman's memory. Turkish wom
en could not travel in trains, or even
leave tieir country. And up almost
ether. The old Turks have always
made their women walk at their hecla
"He also forbade her going to any
apartment house.
"Apartments, such as you have in
"Her husband promised to take her
shopping to console her for the dis
appointment of not going to the tea
party. I urged her to accept his in-
hoax worked well.
"The third corner from his villa
the hoax came again into play. The
wife, who had been to the tea-party
in the' meantime, took the servant's
sitting in the section behind lattices
reserved for women. And the cinema
houses that have these sections are
for Turkish natives only. And the
smart Tur-k prefers' his wife to go to
vitation. He said he would buy her place and the servant, possessor now the Continental cinema houses.
- a , ,k Z, Omo oonoons and a silver necklace of the rich silver chain and the can- orated by Armenians, French and
TfT ZZ 7 . . Bne bad lonK admired. She was to dies, hurried home by a side street. Russians in Constantinople. They are
7n,T h - i?"k" Cm ?w meet hlra near the Pera Palce Hotel, and was ready to laugh with her mis- chic The others are not.
another and he. would be none the t told her to keep the rendezvous, tress on her retnrn. Her husband "ontii six years ago no Turkish
Oue Doer tn Old Harema.
She did. waa utni in the lead. TTe lot her fnt- u ... i i i j
nviiiKu muu di. wtiu uvi uusuauu
'But when she got to the door of low him In the door and up the stairs. jn a theater without the police being
to within the time of President Taft call on the ladies of the harem, a
iu inn oiu narems mere waa one tne jeweler s shop, a hoax was perpe- He did not hear his wife chuckling called. The law forbade it. There
door at the front gate. trated on the husband. Aishe's serv- behind his broad back. i3 now one cinema In Constantinople.
"It was locke on the outside. ing maid was waiting at the door. "I made the wife tell tha husband .aii th. Mno-iV whir-v. h KT,.r.ii
"When a woman visitor came to Her costume had been arranged to be the truth about the shopping tour, dispensation from the sultan, allows
they were not reading foreign novels.
They were reading nothing, not
even the Koran, which is their Bible.
Turkish women are not allowed to
read the Koran to
cause Mohamad, th
rather a feminist.
Therefor the women have been
identical with her mistress'. He was furious. But what could he
"The mistress exchanged places do?" He had wanted a wife who fot
with the maid. The mistress went to lowed at his heels. He found that a
the tea. The maid followed at the woman who followed at his heels
husband heel into the shop. There could be anyone even his wife's serv
she spoke in a respectful whlsnet- ing maid!"
"He forbade her going to a Madame when he asked her if the silver chain "What do women in modern harems
H 's tea party, given for Turkish still pleased her. He was delighted do?"
ladies oa a certain day. Madame at her obaeo,uieace. It was in the "Toe pastimes of woman are al-
eunuch came from a side door, un
locked the door from the outside, let
her in, and locked the door again.
"Apartment houses are nothing like
ny extent be- harems in their construction.
prophet, was
husband and wives to sit together.
But the wives who sit there are the
emancipated wives, not the harem
Ites. "Until a few years ago, a wife could
not ride in a carriage with her hus
band. Why? 'Adet!' That is the
Turkish word for custom. It explains
everything in the east. Women did assimilating it. And assimilating
The law was just and fine.
Women's Changed Attitude.
"But nowadays the wives In the
harem look down on the 'extra'
women, if there are any, and there
are few. Most pashas have a hard
enough time dressing their wiyes
without dressing any 'extras.' And
women mean clothes. The wives have
the contempt, for the odalisk that a
wife has for a woman in the gutter.
"This makes a sad situation.
"In most harem of wealthy men
you see the husband frantically try
ing to keep peace by buying as many
new clothes for his idle wives as he
can afford. He bribes them to be
nice to one another. For all of them
hate their position. The Turk has
been caught in his own net. His
harems are mining him.' They have
ruined him in the past, financially,
morally. The remaining harems are
worse than the old. They are a de
fiance of modern progress."
Christian Culture.
The Turkish empire, after having
tried to conquer the Christian world
for several centuries, has taken to
"He has been able neither to drink
himself to death, gamble away his
fortune or hunt for the north or south
poles. He has had no aptitude for
business. There has been nothing for
the Turkish man to do but to marry.
And he has done this to the full ex
tent of his abilities."
This is the best explanation of the
institution called the harem.
Turkish men now travel, drink,
gamble, try to make money and have
even been known to take up golf,
wearing a fez on the links instead of
a gold cap. ,
The modern women have taken up
modern women's occupations insofar
as they have been able.
Those who have not been able to
take them up are found in the
harems. The harems are the last
sign of Turkey's barbarism and lack
of progress, and they, it is hoped, de
spite their recent revival, will soon
disappear. ,
Miae Symorts in her article next' Sun
day will show the Inner workings of the
Turkish slave-g-iri traffic, which has re
ceived a new impetus from the Greoo
Turkish war, and will tell of the efforts
of the allies to put an end to this condition.)