The use of the veil for centuries has been more or less an act of piety, as well as a social custom. It is supposed to be required by the Koran. I have never been able to find any passage which demands or even suggests it, but that is the interpretation of the Mohammedan world, and the association of ideas has made the veil a badge of feminine virtue. An ordinary Mohammedan woman would no more go into the street, or stand in the presence of a man who does not belong to her family, without a veil than she would without a skirt or any other necessary article of clothing.
This practice prevails throughout the Mohammedan world, but in the larger cities, where the women of the foreign population have been accustomed to go about with uncovered faces as they do at home, the veil has come to be regarded as a badge of slavery, and women of intelligence and self-respect have detested it as they would shackles upon their hands or feet. This explains why so many Turkish women cast off their veils and went about the streets with uncovered faces at the first opportunity that was offered them. But the thoughtful ones have settled down to a rational estimate of their condition and have taken their fate in their own hands. They have decided upon their own emancipation, but their leaders are wise enough to urge the necessity of caution and to beg their sisters to avoid every form of imprudence, lest too radical and rapid a reform should create a reaction.
The change, however, has been a long time coming. It is by no means the consequence of constitutional government, although the revolution furnished the opportunity. For many years the traditional Turkish harem has been breaking up. One of the principal causes has been the extravagance of the women and their love of fine raiment. None but a very rich man could afford more than one wife. The French dressmakers and milliners, who occupy a large space in Constantinople, invaded the harems with samples and models many years ago, and are entitled to the credit of being the pioneers of the emancipation of Turkish women. English and German and French governesses have also played a very important part in preparing the minds of their pupils and inspiring them with ideas and ambitions which were incompatible with the harem. French novels have had an equal influence.
All this has been realized, and the events that have occurred have been feared. In 1901 Abdul Hamid ordered all Turkish families to dismiss their European governesses and instructed the police to prohibit Turkish ladies from visiting European milliners and dressmakers. He forbade the importation of European books. He summoned a council of Mohammedan bishops to prescribe the colour of the garments, the thickness of the veils, and the shape of the shoes that the women of Turkey should wear, but he was as helpless as Canute, the old Viking, who only tried to brush back the tide with his broom. The only effect of the sultan’s efforts to preserve the morals of his subjects was to strengthen their determination to have their own way. I have heard that it is folly to oppose a woman when her mind is made up, and perhaps Abdul Hamid realizes that he defeated his own purpose by his interference with the fashions of the day. No evidence is needed to demonstrate that fact. He is a prisoner for life in a gloomy villa near Salonika, while the women of Turkey are shopping without their veils.
The most important and the most gratifying sign of the times is the eagerness of the young women of Turkey for education. The use of the veil is a matter of the greatest insignificance in comparison with the new spirit that is apparent everywhere among the families of the higher and middle classes. Many Turkish women have acquired the French language. A few speak English and German, which they have learned from their governesses, but they are very few who have a knowledge of books. But now every woman wants to know and she is seeking in every direction for instruction that will aid her in performing her duty to her husband, her family, and herself.
In an article in the National Magazine of London, in the summer of 1910, Sir Edwin Pears, correspondent of the London Times in Constantinople for forty years, who knows Turkey better than any Turk, gave a very interesting review of this situation, and, among other things, said:
“There is now being held at the great American College for Girls at Scutari a weekly class of about eighty Turkish women who are studying preventive medicine, the proper sanitary regulations for a household, the management of children, and similar subjects of primary importance to the sex. The lecturers are medical men, for the hekim, or doctor, is privileged, and Turkish women may attend his lectures, while conventionality would prevent their being present at lectures given by any other man. I may mention here that no one has done more for the education of the women of Turkey than Dr. Mary Patrick, the principal of Scutari College. She is an enthusiastic teacher whose influence upon hundreds of girls has been of incalculable value.”
Sir William Ramsey, the eminent Scottish scientist, in a book published by him concerning Turkey in 1910, said:
“Robert College is one of the most remarkable creations of pure, unselfish beneficence, guided by admirable common sense, that the history of the world has known. It has been for more than fifty years making an educated middle class among the Christians of southeastern Europe and of Asia Minor. And many people who know the country well believe that it has done more to render possible a peaceful solution of the Eastern question than all the European powers and ambassadors. * * * The sole aim of the American missions and of Robert College has been to create self-respect and life in the people of this country.
“The American College for Women at Scutari, which is soon going to migrate to new quarters on the European side of the Bosphorus, aims at doing for the women of the various races of Turkey what Robert College has been doing for the men. It was started as a high school in 1871, it was chartered in 1890 as a college by the legislature of Massachusetts, and it has also an imperial Turkish irade. The language is English and the life is English or American, which in this case are equivalent; but the native languages of the students are also taught, and (if desired) the languages which are to them classical, ancient Greek, Latin, Persian, and Arabic.