Representation of Ottoman women in daily life (1908 -1918)

The nineteenth century in the long political history of the Ottoman Empire can be defined as the century of reforms and institutionalization. III. Selim's (1789 -1807) and II. The reforms that marked the reign of Mahmud (1808 -1839) will turn into a state policy with the 1839 Tanzimat Period. The modernization process of the Ottoman institutions, which would begin with the Tanzimat Period, would gain a new dimension. The modernization of society will gain a new dimension since the middle of the nineteenth century, when the reforms that were tried to be realized by the state and the press began to come into existence. Ottoman press will transfer the daily equivalent of Ottoman modernization to its lines, and in this way, different aspects of modernization will begin to become visible. One of the prominent topics of Ottoman modernization in this process will be the issue of women. The position of women in a number of areas ranging from daily life relationships to consumption habits of the changing social structure will become debatable. In 1908, II. The increase in the press with the proclamation of the Constitutional Monarchy will diversify the discussions about women in many ways. II. The new life, new society claim, which came to the fore with the Constitutional Monarchy, will mean evaluating the relations of women in daily life in the context of gender. In particular, discussions on the ontological existence of women, the appearance of her body, her health, the change in her dress (veiling) and her domestic position will pave the way for reconsidering in this sense. In all these discussions, answers will be sought to the question of the existence of women in daily life and what their limits are in new life. In addition, in the debates on these boundaries, there is a concern to create a woman profile that the whole society can take as an example, as well as the answer sought to the question of how public life should be. Although the mental background of this concern goes back a long time, the development of intellectual debates can be started with the formation of the Ottoman press. II. The Constitutional Monarchy period, on the other hand, is a period when these debates reached their peak. The women of the empire, which actually ended with the Armistice of Mudros signed in 1918, will enter the early republican period with many gains.