writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

From the life stories I have collected, it is evident that both the full and alternate delegates to the
1935 Istanbul Congress were made up entirely of women who had come from educated families,
whose own educations had been encouraged, who had integrated both Ottoman and western
cultural norms, who spoke several foreign languages, and who supported Ataturk's reforms. From
Lâtife Bekir to Aliye Esad, Lâmia Refik to Seniha Rauf and Emine Saffet to Necile Tevfik, the life stories
of all of those women who labored for the 1935 Istanbul Congress, whether they were, or were not,
members of the TKB, are the stories of the Republic's first feminists, women who had been born at
the close of the 19 th century and in the early days of the 20 th century. These are the life stories of the
long and arduous struggle for equality. These stories demonstrate the difficulty in establishing
women's organizations, of the struggle for right to education, and the struggle carried out to ensure
that in the new Republic women will be equal citizenship and independent women, and this also
show the different ways these women experienced their struggles. The delegates to the 1935
Congress were women who were all born in the same time period as the pioneers and militants of
the international suffragist movement, one of the most organized struggle of this century. Even
though they carried out their struggles in different regions of the globe and in differing conditions, all
of these women came together at the 1935 Istanbul Congress.
Keywords: Feminist movement, Turkish Women's Union, 1935 Istanbul Congress, Suffragist
Movement, Turkish Feminists, Women's Biographies
Aslı Davaz
Co‐founder of The Women's Library Information Center Foundation, İstanbul
This paper has been translated from Turkish by Nancy Öztürk
Notes
1
Adele Schreiber and Margaret Mathieson, Journey Towards Freedom: Written for the Golden Jubilee of the
International Alliance of Women (Copenhagen: International Alliance of Women, 1955), p. 61.
2 Document 111, Necile Tevfik Papers, The Women’s Library (Istanbul).
3
Document 41, Necile Tevfik Papers, The Women’s Library (Istanbul).
4
Document 11, Necile Tevfik Papers, The Women’s Library (Istanbul).
5
İnci Karamehmet, interview by Aslı Davaz, Istanbul, 2010.
6
Milliyet Newspaper, 8 December 1969, p. 11.
7
Document 41, Necile Tevfik Papers, The Women’s Library (Istanbul).
Bibliography
Interviews
Sevim Şınık Çeyrekbaşıoğlu (Lâtife Bekir Çeyrekbaşı's daughter‐in‐law), interview by Meryem Turan and Aslı
Davaz, Istanbul, 12 September 2008.
Fazıl Bülent Kocamemi (a relative of Lâtife Bekir Çeyrekbaşı), interview by Meryem Turan and Aslı Davaz,
Istanbul, 8 November 2008.
Melek Günersu (Lâtife Bekir Çeyrekbaşı's niece), interview by Meryem Turan and Aslı Davaz, Istanbul, 8
November 2008.
Şefik Fenmen (Lâmia Refik Fenmen's son), interview by Aslı Davaz, Istanbul, 16 November 2009.
İnci Karamehmet (Vecihe Ziya's daughter), interview by Aslı Davaz, Istanbul, 2010.
Şaziment Umaç (Aliye Halit Fahri's daughter), interview by Tülay Yıldız and Aslı Davaz, Istanbul, 6 January 2010.
Leyla Şehsuvaroğlu (Aliye Esad's daughter) and Şehrazat Hanım (Aliye Esad's granddaughter), interview by Tülay
Yıldız and Aslı Davaz, Istanbul, 23 January 2010.
Nevvare Günseli Kunttav Görgün and Taçlan Görgün (Seniye Cenani's granddaughter and
great‐granddaughter), interview by Aslı Davaz, Istanbul, 10 February 2010.
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