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Show WOMEN IN TURKEY Mistake to Class Them as "Toys of the Harem." i . - Under the Law They Have Absolute Control of Their Own Property, Which All Western Women Have Not ' w- "Some extremely modern young women, who mistake symptoms for the causes of woman's Independence, should make a tour of Turkey," suggests sug-gests a bulletin from the Washington headquarters of the National Geographic Geo-graphic society. "There women smoke, have had property rights for centuries, and divorce Is easy, but who In fill respects wants to be a Turk? The 'toys of the Turkish harems' were to be pitied in many ways, It Is true, but considerable pity for them has been misdirected. For example, the Turkish women-who now are to be 'emancipated' hayev had absolute control con-trol of their own ; property for hundreds hun-dreds of years, whereas the German wives cried (n vain for such 'emanck pation' under the kaiser.," The bulletin quotes from a communication commun-ication by Mary-.MIlls Patrick, which gives a vivid picture, "of the condition of Turkish women before the world war, as follows: - It Is a well-known fact that Roman law Tegarded the rights of the Individual Indi-vidual without consideration of sex; a man or a woman was alike a citizen of the Roman world. This met the requirements re-quirements of Mohanynedan life, where no woman .ever necessarily sustained sus-tained a lasting relation with any man. "Therefore, during all the centuries of Mohammedan history, women have legally controlled "their own property. They have been free to buy, sell, 6e alienate it without 1 consulting any iiia,le relative. This has given them Independence In-dependence of thought and an Influence Influ-ence In business affairs that seems wholly inconsistent with their life of comparative personal slavery. "Enter a hnrem and there you see a Circassian beauty, who has been newly acquired by the tall, handsome pasha who has Just passed you in the street. The air Is heavy with the odor of eastern perfume, and the hlnck eunuch stands' by the door to' wnirh all who come and go; The beauty herself Is thickly powdered, with an elaborate coiffure erected " by her numerous mnids. Jewels half cover her arms, and she wears a beautifully embroidered embroi-dered negligee. There is a languorous expression .In her black , eyes, as she sits idly smoking a cigarette and sipping" sip-ping" Turkish. coffee; . hmm,JJ WbHid you 'think, flo look at her, that when she draws her money from the bank that she must sign her own check? These two sfales of life have been wholly at' variance with each other ; but, as years have gone by, the thoughtful side has ' predominated among the more Intellectual Mohammedan-' women.' until now they are ready to enter into the affairs' of today with . an , understanding and . vigor which the world has never accredited to thera;. , "Tt has been on the social side that Mohammedan 'women have, suffered mostunder the oppression of the past, especially from the frequency of - divorce. di-vorce. A ' man could legally divorce his wife at any minute, the only' condition con-dition being the payment of the dowry which was se'ttlrd upon her by , the husband at the time of her mnrrin;f. "In' the last attempt to keep the sex tn the role assigned to them by the. life of the harem, very strict laws have been made to prevent all possible progress prog-ress among them. Laws hove been proclaimed over and over', again forbidding for-bidding Mohammedan women to at-r tend foreign schools. In this emergency emer-gency they engaged governesses. Most of these governesses wnrt aliens, and many of them were Inefficient, and bad moral guides to so large a portion of the population beg'nnlng to. think and question. The governess system obtained ob-tained so much Influence after a short time that laws were made forbidding women to have governesses. Yet they struggled on In . an effort for mental Illumination, reading, writing, talking things over among themselves, and sometimes getting help from their hu-bauds hu-bauds and brothers. They have accomplished ac-complished much, with so heavy a handicap. han-dicap. In literature, science, commerce com-merce and politics." |