JEAN MONNET CHAIR COAWARE – GUEST LECTURE

2 March 2021, Istanbul 29 Mayıs University, Zoom Webinar

Women’s Movement in Turkey: Late Ottoman and Early Republican Periods

Dr. Zeynep Selen Artan-Bayhan, Assistant Professor at Istanbul 29 Mayıs University

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Özgür Ünal – Eriş, Jean Monnet Chair

Our events in March were dedicated to celebrating #InternationalWomensDay through hosting meetings with leading women in academia, diplomacy, and entrepreneurship.

In this framework, the seventh Jean Monnet Chair COAWARE event was a guest lecture with Dr. Z. Selen Artan – Bayhan on 2 March 2021. Dr. Artan will be talking about the women’s movement in Turkey by looking at the late Ottoman and early Republican periods.

This seminar aimed at examining the public debates and activities engaged by the Ottoman women, this seminar discusses the demands they made and the challenges they faced by the early Republican political elites which eventually led to their silencing.

The seminar walks through several stages and aspects of Ottoman feminist historiography which remained dormant until after a new feminist movement “rediscovered” its roots in the 1990s.

Focusing on the women’s movement during the late Ottoman and early Republican periods, Dr. Artan discussed the challenges and demands of the women’s movement in Turkey with its prominent figures and associations; also the social context and intellectual environment of that period.

Dr. Artan explained the significance of emancipation, the denial of the motto as “being mothers of the nation” and organizations of Turkish women. Her presentation went in a way that explained the interest and the role of Turkish women from the late Ottoman period and the period that included their participation from the War of Independence to granting of political rights in 1934. Her presentation has emphasized the experience of Turkish women from the Ottoman period as a sum.