Writing to exist: Mes’adet Bedirhan’s pleas for Ottoman women

ABSTRACT

Mes’adet Bedirhan was an eloquent author who wrote for the pioneer Ottoman feminist journal called Kadınlar Dünyası (Women’s World) published in Istanbul between 1913 and 1921. She wrote multiple pieces in the Ottoman Turkish and French editions of the journal in 1913–1914. Although very few traces of her life story exist in the historical accounts of the era, she left a mark in this world through her own act of writing. This article not only generates new information about her life but also endeavors to reflect on the overall content of her essays. Through these essays, she showed Ottoman women that they can change their destiny once they discovered their innate strength. She not only underlined women’s agency in contesting their unequal position in the society but also criticized her feminist sisters in the west for representing the Ottoman women as silent and submissive objects of pleasure.

KEYWORDS:

• Mes'adet Bedirhan
• Kadınlar Dünyası
• Istanbul
• women's agency
• Ottoman women
• Orientalism

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Serhat Bozkurt, Martin van Bruinessen, Serpil Çakır, Abdullah Keskin, Malmisanij, Hakan Özoğlu, and Mesut Yeğen for replying to my queries at the early stages of this research. I am indebted to Ahmet Aktürk who attracted my attention to the information about the identity of Mes’adet Bedirhan’s husband. Mithat Kutlar generously shared my interest and his knowledge about Mes’adet Bedirhan. Many thanks to Ebru Sönmez who meticulously completed the transliterations of some of Mes’adet Bedirhan’s essays in Ottoman Turkish that were published in Kadınlar Dünyası. All the translations in the text from Turkish and French to English are mine. The digital archives of Women’s Works Library and Information Center Foundation (Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfı) was an invaluable source of information. I am grateful to Jale Karabekir of Tiyatro Boyalı Kuş who generously sent me the transliterated text of Mes’adet Bedirhan’s play Hasbıhal. Many thanks to Sinemhan Bedirhan for graciously talking to me on the phone and to Ferhat Yaşar for helping me communicate with her. Special thanks to Salah Al-Bashir and Nissreen Haram, my colleagues, and friends from the Yale Law School’s Middle East Legal Studies Seminar, who helped me connect with Mes’adet Bedirhan’s great granddaughter Nafisa Ghazi. My heartfelt gratitude to Nafisa Ghazi who enriched my information about Mes’adet Bedirhan and provided me with one of her photographs. Needless to mention, all the responsibility of this article is mine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Latin proverb: ‘spoken words fly away, written words remain’.

2 Captain Fethi Bey was one of the pioneer pilots of the Ottoman Air Force. In 1914, both he and another pilot, Lieutenant Nuri Bey were given the task of flying two airplanes on the same route from Istanbul to Alexandria, Egypt. These flights were planned to boost the morale of the people after the Balkan Wars. On their way from Damascus to Jerusalem, Fethi Bey’s plane crashed into the Lake Tiberias, killing both Fethi Bey and his map guide, First Lieutenant Sadık Bey. Fethi Bey became the first martyred pilot of the Ottoman Air Force and Sultan Reşad honored him by changing the name of the city of Meğri to Fethiye. A couple of weeks later, the second airplane, continuing its mission with its pilot Lieutenant Nuri Bey and his map guide Captain İ. Hakkı Bey also crashed killing Nuri Bey while the map guide miraculously survived. Ural Akbulut, ‘Şehit Pilot Yüzbaşı Fethi Bey: Adı Fethiye’ye Verildi’, Milliyet (Daily), February 8, 2019. https://www.milliyet.com.tr/gundem/sehit-pilot-yuzbasi-fethi-bey-adi-fethiye-ye-verildi-2824335. After the crash of the second flight, Mes’adet Bedirhan wrote a piece honoring the martyred pilots. Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Osmânlı Tayyâreciliğinin Üçüncü Kurbânı Büyük Şehid Nûri: Sukûtun kâ’inât-ı arşa yüksek bir su’ûd oldu’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 134, March 21, 1914.

3 Belkıs Şevket, ‘Uçarken … ’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 120, December 13, 1913, in Şeyda Aysun Oğuz (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Kadınlar Dünyası, No. 111-120, Vol. 6, Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfı (Istanbul: Libra, 2022), 562.

4 Serpil Çakır, Osmanlı Kadın Hareketi (Istanbul: Metis, 2016 [1994]), 115.

5 Kadınlar Dünyası, 119, December 6, 1913, in Şeyda Aysun Oğuz (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Vol. 6, p. 508.

6 Serpil Çakır, Osmanlı Kadın Hareketi, 134–5.

7 Such referrals to the current of ‘feminism’ existed in the following issues of Kadınlar Dünyası: 141, 160, 164, 169, 176, 177, 194/4, 194/10. Ibid., 179–182.

8 ‘Hukuk-ı Nisvan: Mukaddime’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 1, April 17, 1913, in Kadınlar Dünyası, 1–50 Sayılar, eds Fatma Büyükkarcı Yılmaz and Tülay Gençtürk Demircioğlu (Istanbul: Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfı, 2009), 3.

9 Nuriye Ulviye’s name change to N. Ulviye Mevlan became visible on the cover of the issue 108 which was published on 20 September 1913, in Birsen Talay Keşoğlu (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri Kadınlar Dünyası, No. 101-110, Vol. 5, Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfı, (Istanbul: Libra) 2021, 479.

10 Çakır, Osmanlı Kadın Hareketi, 150–151.

11 Mithat Kutlar, Nuriye Ulviye Mevlan ve ‘Kadınlar Dünyası’nda Kürtler (Istanbul, Avesta, 2010), esp. 61–70.

12 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Esirin Avdeti için’, Kadınlar Dünyası, no: 128, February 7, 1914 (transliteration by Ebru Sönmez).

13 Kutlar, Nuriye Ulviye Mevlan, 68, footnote 133. Kutlar states that the book was listed in a catalogue by M. Seyfettin Özege about Turkish books written in Ottoman Turkish. See; M. Seyfettin Özege, Eski Harfli Basılmış Türkçe Eserler Kataloğu (Istanbul, 1971–79). Accordingly, the book was published in 1913 by the Kadınlar Dünyası print house and was 56 pages long. Mesud Serfiraz also gives some information about this book although both authors indicate that they could not find the book. See; Mesud Serfiraz, ‘Bedirxani kardeşlerin ilk dönem eserleri ve düşünce yapısı’, Kürt Tarihi, November-December 2016, 23–27.

14 Barbara Henning, Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family in Imperial and Post-Imperial Contexts: Continuities and Changes (Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2018), 395.

15 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Esirin Avdeti için’, Kadınlar Dünyası, no: 128, February 7, 1914 (transliteration by Ebru Sönmez).

16 Ibid. See also; Kutlar, Nuriye Ulviye Mevlan, 68.

17 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Esir Öldü’, Kadınlar Dünyası, no: 133, March 14, 1914 (transliteration by Ebru Sönmez). The ordeal of Kasım was also covered by another author, Fato Nali, in Kadınlar Dünyası. This piece was published both in the Ottoman Turkish and French pages of the journal. It included a photo of Kasım and tried to attract the attention of the author’s readers (to whom she referred as ‘Dear Mothers!’ and ‘Dear Sisters!’) to the pain in Kasım’s eyes. The author stated that ‘the mother of Kasım, that brave Kurdish woman in her forties, will be seen at the forefront of the future Turkish-Bulgarian war’. (La mére de Kassim, cette brave femme Kurde, d’une quarantaine d’années, sera vue au premier rang de la future guerre Turco-Bulgare.) Fato Nali, ‘Ahmet Oğlu Kasım’ın Resmi Münasebetiyle’, Kadınlar Dünyası, no: 122, December 27, 1913. Fato Nali, ‘A Propos de la Photographie de Kassım’, no: 122, December 14/27, 1913. See also; Kutlar, Nuriye Ulviye Mevlan, 66.

18 I am indebted to Professor Ahmet Aktürk for generously sparing his time to reply to my mails and attracting my attention to this editorial piece in Kadınlar Dünyası, no: 118, November 29, 1913, in Şeyda Aysun Oğuz (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Vol. 6, p. 444.

19 Ibid.

20 As I indicated above, she is mentioned in Barbara Henning’s account of the Bedirhan family. See; Barbara Henning, Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family, esp. 395.

21 Malmisanij, Cızira Botanlı Bedirhaniler ve Bedirhani Ailesi Derneği’nin Tutanakları (Istanbul: Avesta, 2009[1994]), 390–1.

22 Geneanet. https://gw.geneanet.org/virgile81?lang=en&pz=mathieu±maurice±andre&nz=nival&ocz=1&p=qudrat&n=badrakhan.

23 Malmisanij, Cızira Botanlı Bedirhaniler, 112–132.

24 Basil Nikitin, ‘Badrkhani, Thurayya (1883–1938) and Djaladat (1893–1951)’, in The Encylopaedia of Islam, Vo. 1, Fasciculus 14, eds. B. Lewis, C.H. Pellat, and J. Schacht (Leiden: E. J. Brill and London: Luzac and Co., 1958), 871. Nikitin refers to Süreyya Bedirhan as Thurayya Badrkhani.

25 Cited in Serhat Bozkurt, ‘Ahmed Süreyya Bedirhan’ın Sicili’, Kürt Tarihi, 10, December 2013–January 2014, 52–3. Serhat Bozkurt who published these records also mentions that some sources refer to Süreyya Bedirhan’s birthplace as Mektele. The Directorate of State Archives was attached to the Prime Ministry. With the 2017 Constitutional amendments, Turkey’s long entrenched parliamentary system was replaced by a presidential regime. The archives are currently attached to the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, Directorate of State Archives.

26 Nikitin, ‘Badrkhani, Thurayya’, 871.

27 Bozkurt, ‘Ahmed Süreyya Bedirhan’ın Sicili’, 52. Rıdvan Paşa was assassinated after a dispute with his neighbor Abdürrezak Bedirhan (Süreyya Bedirhan’s uncle) over the construction of a road in front of their house. Levent Civelekoğlu, ‘23 Mart 1906; Göztepe’de fail-i mâlum bir cinayet!..’ in Levent Civelekoğlu’s blog: https://lcivelekoglu.blogspot.com/2014/10/23-mart-1906-goztepede-fail-i-malum-bir.html.

Rıdvan Paşa’s son Reşat Rıdvan was a theater enthusiast. Rıdvan Paşa had banned theater in Turkish language in Istanbul during those years to divert his son’s attention away from a career in theater. After his father’s assassination, Reşat Rıdvan began to use the funds that he inherited from his father towards becoming a key patron of Istanbul theaters. See; Ayşe Kadıoğlu, ‘Leaving a Life Behind: Eliza Binemeciyan’s Encounter with “the Banality of Evil”’, Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 28, no. 1 (2021): 1–30, esp. 19. About the Bedirhan family members’ exile from Istanbul after Rıdvan Paşa’s assassination, see also; Hakan Özoğlu, ‘Nationalism and the Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman-Early Republican Era’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 33, no. 3 (2001): 383–409, esp. 399.

28 Malmisanij, Cızira Botanlı Bedirhaniler, 113.

29 Ibid., 114.

30 Ibid., 117.

31 Özoğlu, ‘Nationalism and the Kurdish Notables’, 402.

32 Ibid., 403. See also; Malmisanij, Cızira Botanlı Bedirhaniler, 154–55.

33 Nikitin, ‘Badrkhani, Thurayya’, 871.

34 Ibid.

35 This book was published in Turkey in 2009: Bletch Chirguh, Kürt Sorunu: Kökeni ve Nedenleri (Istanbul: Avesta, 2009 [1930]). See also; Ahmet Kardam, Cizre-Bohtan Beyi Bedirhan: Direniş ve İsyan Yılları (Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları, 2011), 340.

36 Ahmet Aktürk, ‘Female Cousins and Wounded Masculinity: Kurdish Nationalist Discourse in the Post-Ottoman Middle East’, Middle Eastern Studies 52, no. 1 (2016): 46–59.

37 Ibid., 46.

38 Ibid., 50.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid., 46.

41 Ibid., 51.

42 Cited in Ibid., 53.

43 Kutlar, Nuriye Ulviye Mevlan, 61–70. In our conversations on the phone on 4 January and 17 September 2023, Mithat Kutlar told me that he had suspected that Mes’adet Bedirhan could be Circassian.

44 Mehmed Uzun, Kader Kuyusu, Belge Yayınları, 1997 (translated from Kurdish to Turkish by Muhsin Kızılkaya), 155. Mehmed Uzun refers to Emin Ali Bedirhan’s wife and the mother of Celadet, Kamran and Meziyet as ‘Semiha.’ Her name is written as ‘Seniha’ in both Malmisanij’s and Barbara Henning’s accounts of the Bedirhan family. Süreyya Bedirhan’s mother was not her, but Emin Ali Bedirhan’s former wife. Both women are described as Circassian although Süreyya Bedirhan’s mother’s name is not mentioned in the literature. Malmisanij, Cızira Botanlı Bedirhaniler, 399 and 112. Barbara Henning, Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family, 346.

45 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Talak’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 148, July 3, 1914 (transliteration by Ebru Sönmez).

46 It is interesting to note that Mesud Serfiraz argues that Süreyya Bedirhan and his brothers also adopted Ottomanism and acted like Ottoman citizens in their early writings during the Balkan Wars despite their consciousness about the Kurdish identity and language. Serfiraz continues to claim that they adopted Kurdish nationalism during the First World War when they observed the atrocities committed against the Armenians and Kurds by the Committee of Union and Progress and understood that the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire had become inevitable. Serfiraz, ‘Bedirxani kardeşlerin ilk dönem eserleri ve düşünce yapısı’, 26–7.

47 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Evde ve Cemiyette Kadın’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 101, August 2, 1913, in Birsen Talay Keşoğlu (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Vol. 5, pp. 128–9.

48 Ibid., 129.

49 Ibid., 128.

50 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Evde ve Cemiyette Kadın’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 102, August 9, 1913, in Birsen Talay Keşoğlu (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Vol. 5, pp. 171–2.

51 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Evde ve Cemiyette Kadın’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 104, August 23, 1913, in Birsen Talay Keşoğlu (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Vol. 5, pp. 275–7, esp. 275.

52 Ibid., 276.

53 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Evde ve Cemiyette Kadın’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 105, August 30, 1913, in Birsen Talay Keşoğlu (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Vol. 5, pp. 337–9, esp. 337.

54 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Evde ve Cemiyette Kadın’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 106, September 6, 1913, in Birsen Talay Keşoğlu (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Vol. 5, pp. 381–84.

55 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Talak’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 148, July 3, 1914 (transliteration by Ebru Sönmez).

56 Berthe Dangennes (translated by Mes’adet Bedirhan), ‘Serbest Aşk’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 142, May 22, 1914 (transliteration by Ebru Sönmez).

57 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Koca Ne Demek?’ Kadınlar Dünyası, 137, April 11, 1914 (transliteration by Ebru Sönmez).

58 Ibid. The expression ‘koca’ denotes husband while ‘kocamak’ means getting old in Turkish. The expression becomes playful since rosebud is also a similar word in Turkish, i.e., ‘konca’.

59 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Talak’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 148, July 3, 1914 (transliteration by Ebru Sönmez).

60 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Evde ve Cemiyette Kadın’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 106, September 6, 1913, in Birsen Talay Keşoğlu (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Vol. 5, pp. 381–4, esp. 384.

61 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Evde ve Cemiyette Kadın’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 103, August 16, 1913, in Birsen Talay Keşoğlu (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Vol. 5, pp. 223–5, esp. 225.

62 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘İslam Kadınlarının Kongresi’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 139, May 1, 1914 (transliteration by Ebru Sönmez).

63 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Evde ve Cemiyette Kadın’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 102, August 9, 1913, in Birsen Talay Keşoğlu (ed.), Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Kadın Dergileri, Vol. 5, pp. 171–2, esp. 172.

64 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘Kadınlık ne Vakit Anlaşılacak’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 135, March 28, 1914, transliterated text can be seen in Kutlar, Nuriye Ulviye Mevlan, 183–5, esp. 185.

65 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘İstanbul’un iki yüz senelik bir Müslüman Türk ailesine mensub Emine Hanımefendi’ye cevabımız’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 126, January 24, 1914 (transliteration by Ebru Sönmez).

66 A theater group, namely,Tiyatro Boyalı Kuş (https://tiyatroboyalikus.com/), staged this play in Istanbul in their 2010–11 season as part of their Reading Theater Through Feminist Dramaturgy Series. Jale Karabekir of Tiyatro Boyalı Kuş generously shared with me the text of Mes’adet Bedirhan’s play Hasbıhal that was used during its staging.

67 Süreyya Bedirhan, ‘La Femme Kurde et son role social’, XVI Congres International d’Anthropologie, Bruxelles, 1936. Süreyya Bedirhan’s name was written as le Prince Sureya Bedr-Khan (Paris) on the publication. This essay, penned in French, was based on a lecture that he gave in 1935. I am grateful to Martin van Bruinessen and Ahmet Aktürk for attracting my attention to this essay.

68 Ibid., 2.

69 Ibid., 4.

70 ‘Deux Motts’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 121, December 7–20, 1913. All the issues of the journal Kadınlar Dünyası can be reached at the Women’s Work Library and Information Center Foundation website. All the French editions of the journal are available at this website as well: http://kutuphane.puktacloud.com/yordam/?p=1&q=Kad%C4%B1nlar%20D%C3%BCnyas%C4%B1&alan=tum_txt&fq%5b%5d=qDil_strs:%22ota%22&fq%5b%5d=kunyeAnaTurKN_str:%220500%22&sno=11.

71 Ibid.

72 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘La Polygamie et l’Islam’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 121. The name of the journal was written as Kadinlar Dunyassi (Monde Féminin) while Mes’adet Bedirhan’s name was written as Messadet Bedir-Khan in the French editions. I kept the name of the journal as Kadınlar Dünyası and the author’s name as Mes’adet Bedirhan in the references for consistency since it is the same journal and author.

73 Ibid.

74 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘La Femme et Mahomet’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 123, December 21 1913–January 3, 1914.

75 Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979).

76 Ibid., 6.

77 Ibid., italics as in the original.

78 Ibid.

79 Ibid., 190.

80 Berthe Delaunay, ‘Turques et Françaises’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 124, December 28, 1913–January 10, 1914. Berthe Delaunay’s photograph was printed in issue 138 of Kadınlar Dünyası published on April 17, 1914. There is also a record on the website of Sotheby’s of her portrait (Portrait de Madame Berthe Delaunay) painted by Henri Lebasque on April 12, 1912, oil on canvas. https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/impressionist-modern-day-sale-l18008/lot.236.html.

81 Cited in Berthe Delaunay, ‘Turques et Françaises’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 124, December 28, 1913–January 10, 1914.

82 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘A propos de l’article de Madame Delaunay’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 125, January 4–17, 1914.

83 Mes’adet Bedirhan, ‘A propos de l’article de Madame Delaunay, suite’, Kadınlar Dünyası, 126, January 11–24, 1914.

84 Ibid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ayşe Kadıoğlu

Ayşe Kadıoğlu is Professor of Political Science at Sabancı University, Istanbul. In addition to authored/co-edited books, she has published several articles in Middle East Journal, Middle Eastern Studies, International Migration, Muslim World, Citizenship Studies, Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, Middle East Law and Governance, Philosophy and Social Criticism, Social Research: An International Quarterly, and Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies. Her most recent work involves the study of how constitutions and other laws are used in authoritarian consolidation, namely, autocratic legalism. She has also been researching the biographies of Istanbul’s forgotten women at the turn of the twentieth century. Formerly, she was the Acting President of Sabancı University and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in the same institution.