I may add that the Koran, the Mohammedan code of laws, gives a married woman the full status of a legal person before the law, and full civil ability. It recognizes separation of property as legal, and grants the wife the right to control and to dispose of her property. Hence the Koran is more liberal than the Code Napoleon or the German Civil Code. Whether the restrictions of the harem make the exercise of these rights impossible in practice, I am unable to say.
European schools, as well as the newly founded Universités populaires, are in Turkey and in Egypt the centers of enlightenment among the Mohammedans. The European women doctors in Constantinople, Alexandria, and Cairo are all disseminators of modern culture. A woman lawyer practices in the Cairo court, and has been admitted to the lawyers’ society.
The Young Turk movement and the reform of Turkey on a constitutional basis found hearty support among the women. They expressed themselves orally and in writing in favor of the liberal ideas; they spoke in public and held public meetings; they attempted to appear in public without veils, and to attend the theater in order to see a patriotic play; they sent a delegation to the Young Turk committee requesting the right to occupy the spectators’ gallery in Parliament; and, finally, they organized the Women’s Progress Society, which comprises women of all nationalities but concerns itself only with philanthropy and education. As a consequence, the government is said to have resolved to erect a humanistic Gymnasium for girls in Constantinople. The leader of the Young Turks, the present President of the Chamber of Deputies, is, as a result of his long stay in Paris, naturally convinced of the superiority of harem life and legal polygamy (when compared with occidental practices).[112] The freedom of action of the Mohammedan women, especially in the provinces, might be much hampered by traditional obstacles. Nevertheless, the restrictions placed on the Mohammedan woman have been abolished, as is proved by the following:—
In Constantinople there has been founded a “Young Turkish Woman’s League” that proposes to bring about the same great revolutionary changes in the intellectual life of woman that have already been introduced into the political life of man. Knowledge and its benefits must in the future be made accessible to the Turkish women. This is to be done openly. Formerly all strivings of the Turkish women were carried on in secret. The women revolutionists were anxiously guarded; as far as possible, information concerning their movements was secured before they left their homes. The Turkish women wish to prove that they, as well as the women of other countries, have human rights. When the constitution of the “Young Turkish Woman’s League” was being drawn up, Enver Bey was present. He was thoroughly in favor of the demands of the new woman’s rights movement. The “Young Turkish Woman’s League” is under the protection of Princess Refià Sultana, daughter of the Sultan. Princess Refià, a young woman of twenty-one years of age, has striven since her eighteenth year to acquire a knowledge of the sciences. She speaks several languages. The enthusiasm of the Young Turkish women is great. Many of them appear on the streets without veils,—a thing that no prominent Turkish woman could do formerly. Women of all classes have joined the League. The committee daily receives requests for admission to membership.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
| Total population: 1,591,036. The men preponderate numerically. |
Bosnia and Herzegovina, being Mohammedan countries, have harems and the restricted views of harem life. Naturally, a woman’s rights movement is not to be thought of. Polygamy and patriarchal life are characteristic.
Into this Mohammedan country the Austrian government has sent women disseminators of the culture of western Europe,[113]—the Bosnian district women doctors. The first of these was Dr. Feodora Krajevska in Dolna Tuszla, now in Serajewo. Now she has several women colleagues. The women doctors wear uniforms,—a black coat, a black overcoat with crimson facings and with two stars on the collar.
PERSIA
Total population: about 9,500,000.