Feminist/ nationalist discourse in the first year of the Ottoman revolutionary press (1908-1909) : readings from the magazines of Demet, Mehasin and Kadin (Salonica)

Abstract

Feminist/ Nationalist Discourse in the First Year of Ottoman Revolutionary Press: Readings from the Magazines Demet, Mehasin and Kadın (Salonica) This paper examines the emergence of a Feminist discourse and its evolution alongside with Turkish nationalism in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Ottoman revolutionary press by focusing on the readings of Demet, Mehasin and Kadın, which appeared after the 1908 Revolution and provided an early debate for discussion of women’s rights in the context of the Turkist movement. This paper reveals the aspirations and forces, which shaped early Turkist feminist discourse and the way in which it contributed to the construction of “the new image of the Turkish woman”. Nationalism elevated women’s roles as mothers and wives and the emergence of a self-sacrificing, de-sexualized, patriotic image for women.