Marriage and divorce in the late Ottoman Empire: social upheaval, women’s rights, and the need for new family law

Abstract

A revision of family law became necessary in the late Ottoman Empire for several reasons. The sociocultural and economic landscape was transformed; war forced poor Muslim women who had lost their husbands into destitution; and the Ottoman state led by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) was motivated by ideological concerns to push for new family and gender arrangements. Women's journals published in Istanbul along with official state documents in the late Ottoman Empire (1910-1917) are here explored for insights into this, afforded by the changing lives and perceptions of late Ottoman Istanbulites, leading to the conclusion that these combined with as well as reflected the various upheavals and movements of the time to prompt the legislative change. © 2013 The Author(s).