hanoum Zeyneb - A Turkish Womans European Impressions

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A TURKISH WOMANS EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS

Zeyneb in her Paris Drawing-room.

Zeyneb in her Paris Drawing-room
She is wearing the Yashmak and Feradj, or cloak.

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A TURKISH WOMANS
EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS

BY
ZEYNEB HANOUM
(HEROINE OF PIERRE LOTIS NOVEL LES DSENCHANTES)
EDITED & WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
GRACE ELLISON
WITH 23 ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS & A DRAWING BY
AUGUSTE RODIN
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
LONDON: SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LTD.
1913

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CONTENTS

CHAP.	PAGE
I.	A DASH FOR FREEDOM
II.	ZEYNEBS GIRLHOOD
III.	BEWILDERING EUROPE
IV.	SCULPTURES FORBIDDEN JOY
V.	THE ALPS AND ARTIFICIALITY
VI.	FREEDOMS DOUBTFUL ENCHANTMENT
VII.	GOOD-BYE TO YOUTHTAKING THE VEIL
VIII.	A MISFIT EDUCATION
IX.	SMART WOMEN THROUGH THE VEIL
X.	THE TRUE DEMOCRACY
XI.	A COUNTRY PICTURE
XII.	THE STAR FROM THE WESTTHE EMPRESS EUGNIE
XIII.	TURKISH HOSPITALITYA REVOLUTION FOR CHILDREN
XIV.	A STUDY IN CONTRASTS
XV.	DREAMS AND REALITIES
XVI.	THE MOON OF RAMAZAN
XVII.	AND IS THIS REALLY FREEDOM?
XVIII.	THE CLASH OF CREEDS
XIX.	IN THE ENEMYS LAND
XX.	THE END OF THE DREAM

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ILLUSTRATIONS

Zeyneb in her Paris Drawing-room
A Turkish Child with a Slave	To face page
A Turkish House	page
Les Dsenchantes (by M. Rodin)	page
A Turkish Dancer	page
A Turkish Lady dressed as a Greek Dancer	page
Turkish Lady in Tcharchoff (outdoor costume)	page
Silent Gossip of a Group of Turkish Women	page
Turkish Ladies in their Garden with their Childrens Governesses	page
Yashmak and Mantle	page
Melek in Yashmak	page
Zeyneb in her Western Drawing-room	page
Turkish Ladies paying a Visit	page
Zeyneb with a black Face-veil thrown back	page
A Corner of a Turkish Harem of to-day	page
Turkish Women and Children in the Country	page
The Balcony at the Back of Zeynebs House	page
Zeyneb and Melek	page
The Drawing-room of a Harem showing the Bridal Throne	page
A Corner of the Harem	page
A Caque on the Bosphorus	page
Turkish Women in the Country	page
Melek on the Verandah at Fontainebleau	page

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INTRODUCTION

In the preface of his famous novel, Les Dsenchantes , M. Pierre Loti writes: This novel is pure fiction; those who take the trouble to find real names for Zeyneb, Melek, or Andr will be wasting their energy, for they never existed.

These words were written to protect the two women, Zeyneb and Melek, who were mainly responsible for the information contained in that book, from the possibility of having to endure the terror of the Hamidian rgime as a consequence of their indiscretion. This precaution was unnecessary, however, seeing that the two heroines, understanding the impossibility of escaping the Hamidian vigilance, had fled to Europe, at great peril to their lives, before even the novel appeared.

Although it is not unusual to find Turkish women who can speak fluently two or three European languages (and this was very striking to me when I stayed in a Turkish harem), and although M. Loti has in his novel taken the precaution to let Melek die, yet it would still have been an easy task to discover the identity of the two heroines of his book.

Granddaughters of a Frenchman who for les beaux yeux of a Circassian became a Turk and embraced Mahometanism, they had been signalled out from amongst the enlightened women who are a danger to the State, and were carefully watched.

For a long time many cultured Turkish women had met to discuss what could be done for the betterment of their social status; and when it was finally decided to make an appeal to the sympathy of the world in the form of a novel, who better than Pierre Loti, with his magic pen and keen appreciation of Turkish life, could be found to plead the cause of the women of what he calls his second fatherland?

In one of my letters written to Zeyneb from Constantinople, I hinted that the Young Turks met in a disused cistern to discuss the Revolution which led Europe to expect great things of them. The women, too, met in strange places to plot and planthey were full of energetic intentions, but, with the Turkish womans difficulty of bringing thought into action, they did little more than plot and plan, and but for Zeyneb and Melek, Les Dsenchantes would never have been written.

At the conclusion of his preface, M. Loti says: What is true in my story is the culture allowed to Turkish women and the suffering which must necessarily follow. This suffering, which to my foreign eyes appeared perhaps more intense, is also giving anxiety to my dear friends the Turks themselves, and they would like to alleviate it. The remedy for this evil I do not claim to have discovered, since the greatest thinkers of the East are still diligently working to find it.

Like M. Loti I, too, own my inability to come any nearer a solution of this problem. I, who through the veil have studied the aimless, unhealthy existences of these pampered women, am nevertheless convinced that the civilisation of Western Europe for Turkish women is a case of exchanging the frying-pan for the fire. Zeyneb in her letters to me, written between 1906-1912, shows that, if her disenchantment with her harem existence was bitter, she could never appreciate our Western civilisation.

Turkish women are clamouring for a more solid education and freedom. They would cast aside the hated veil; progress demands they shouldbut do they know for what they are asking?

Be warned by us, you Turkish women, I said to them, painting the consequences of our freedom in its blackest colours, and do not pull up your anchor till you can safely steer your ship. My own countrymen have become too callous to the bitter struggles of women; civilisation was never meant to be run on these lines, therefore hold fast to the protection of your harems till you can stand alone.

Since my return to London, I have sometimes spoken on Turkish life, and have been asked those very nave questions which wounded the pride of Zeyneb Hanoum. When I said I had actually stayed in an harem, I could see the male portion of my audience, as it were, passing round the wink. You must not put the word harem on the title of your lecture, said the secretary of a certain society. Many who might come to hear you would stay away for fear of hearing improper revelations, and others would come hoping to hear those revelations and go away disappointed.

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