Avanzade Mehmet Suleyman: A Traditionalist Writer Advocates Women’s Rights Movement during the Constitutional Period

Abstract

The issue of women's rights is one of the novelties that came with the declaration of constitutional monarchy in the Ottoman Empire. The publication of a great number of newspapers and magazines dedicated to women's issues and active role of women writers and journalists in Ottoman periodicals of that time gave rise to debates about the position of women in society. Especially during the second constitutional period, the authors dealt with all the issues concerned with women. One of the authors of that period, Avanzade Mehmet Suleyman wrote on the necessity of women's education and on the importance of gaining the visibility for women in the Ottoman social life. Avanzade Mehmet Suleyman has written numerios works related to women, and the governing idea in his work was that the education of well-mannered Muslim women will save the whole society. This paper devoted to the Avanzade Mehmet Suleyman's thoughts on what should an ideal woman be like.