Turkish Women according to Turkish Writers and European Travelers in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

In the Ottoman Empire, Turkish women were generally introverted, devoted to their home, mostly deprived of education and they were not economically independent. They were required to veil.

Women, even if they were not in sufficient numbers, started to attend modern schools, established after the second half of the 19th century. Even though women could not become members of political associations, they could undertake duties in social associations in the 19th century. The Harem life has always aroused foreigners' interest. The Harem was a separate part of an Ottoman house where wives, concubines and children of the head of the family live. Sisters and daughters of the Sultan used to have a freer life.

Women started to go out more freely in the second half of the nineteenth century. That the non-Muslim women could freely go out and that they wore in their wish used to be tolerated.