LATE OTTOMAN MUSLIM WOMEN OF LETTERS VIS-À-VIS THE GENDERED DISCOURSE OF “THE NEW OTTOMAN MUSLIM WOMAN” by Emine Hoşoğlu Doğan A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Middle East Studies/ History College of Humanities The University of Utah December 2016 ProQuest Number: 10248455 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ProQuest 10248455 Published by ProQuest LLC (2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 Copyright © Emine Hoşoğlu Doğan 2016 All Rights Reserved The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF DISSERTATION APPROVAL The dissertation of Emine Hoşoğlu Doğan has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Peter John Sluglett , Chair 09/13/2016 Date Approved Roberta Micallef , Member 09/13/2016 Date Approved Peter Von Sivers , Member 09/13/2016 Date Approved Hülya Adak , Member 09/13/2016 Date Approved Vincent Cheng , Member 09/13/2016 Date Approved and by Nathan Paul Devir , Chair/Dean of the Department/College/School of Middle East Center and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT This dissertation offers a study of the configurations of the idealized, new female gender identity in the public discourse within the late 19th- and early 20th- century Ottoman Muslim urban context and investigates Ottoman Muslim women of letters’ involvement in this discourse targeting their own images and presences. The new woman was configured as both the guardian of native values and a potent agent of social development. This study contends that women’s increasing participation in public writing and their diversified literary input on issues related to female modesty and feminine/domestic identity created a collective agency in this venue, complicating and unsettling the constructions of the new woman’s identity. Women with varying alliances to Islam, nationalism and modernity had changing interpretations of progress and cultural integrity. It brought about contestations, more often than not, over a range of conditions and practices, including Muslim women’s attire, their appearance in public places, at gatherings, at work and school, with regard to its propriety for the idealized Ottoman Muslim womanhood. The discussion in this work also speaks accordingly to the general issue of subjectivity, in the face of dominant ideas, identities and projects that attempt to shape and represent individuals. A more inclusive picture of women’s intellectual existence in history, in terms of ideological attitudes, and of social status and prominence, is offered based on (re)examination of primary sources, to counter the different ways of silencing and the avoiding of acknowledgment in the historiographies of the period. To my mom and dad, Mevlüde Hoşoğlu and Mustafa Hoşoğlu. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………….. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………..………….. vii Chapters 1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………...……… 1 2 TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE LATE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE NEW FEMALE IDENTITY QUESTION……………………..…………………………... 8 2.1 Dynamics of the Question of the New Female Identity…………….…...… 16 3 RESEARCH AND LITERATURE………………………………………………... 23 3.1 Gender, Women's Writing and Historiography…………..……………….. 23 3.1.1 Inclusiveness and Diversity……………………………………… 29 3.2 Working with the Late Ottoman Muslim Women of Letters……………… 33 3.2.1 Identification …………………………………………….……… 33 3.2.2 Sources…………………………………………………………... 37 3.3 Brief History of the Scholarship of the Late Ottoman Muslim Women of Letters …………………………………..…………………….…………... 45 4 OTTOMAN MUSLIM WOMEN OF LETTERS.………………………..………... 58 4.1 Emergence of Women’s Public Writing in the 19th- Century Historical Context……………………………………………………………..……... 58 4.2 Literary Tradition of Ottoman Muslim Women………………………..… 93 5 “THE NEW WOMAN” ……..……………………………………………............ 116 5.1 Configurations Between Progress and Traditions.……………………… 116 5.2 To Write or Not to Be: Public Writing as an Act of Identity Negotiation…………………………………………………………........ 134 6 WOMEN’S CHANGED PROXIMITIES TO CONTEMPORARY IDEAS, IDENTITIES AND PROJECTS …...........................................……………….… 161 6.1 The Codes of Modesty…………………………………….…………….. 161 6.2 The Peripheries of Femininity………………………………….……….. 182 7 CONCLUSION: WRITING HER SELF………………………………...…….… 203 Appendices A: FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………... 211 B: SELECTED ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS..…………….………………………..… 220 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………..… 222 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank Prof. Peter Sluglett for accepting me as his Ph.D. student, for introducing me to Middle Eastern history studies, for his kindness, and for his support of my academic pursuits. I owe my sincere gratitude to Dr. Roberta Micallef who first introduced me to a variety of work by Middle Eastern women writers, as well as major theories and discussions in feminism studies. On innumerable occasions, when I was her teaching assistant at the University of Utah, or if I was participating in conferences, meetings and projects, she guided and encouraged my work. She educated me in how to articulate arguments, and to be direct and critical in academic work. Throughout the dissertation period, her generous help, her patience, her confidence in me and my project, and most important of all, her friendship, kept me going through the most demanding stages of this process. She taught me a lot about being a good teacher and mentor. I was honored by Prof. Peter Von Sivers’ attentive reading of the present study, and am thankful for his constructive feedback, as a historian, during the critical phases of it. Prof. Vincent Cheng’s meticulous rereading of my writing for its language; his thoughtful suggestions, shaped the way I handled and presented the material, and expanded my view. I am indebted to Dr. Hülya Adak for her appreciative and instructive comments about the scope of this study, and her enthusiasm and valuable insights. The very different areas of interest of the members of my Ph.D. committee contributed to the interdisciplinary grounds of this work. At the University of Washington many years ago, I was fortunate to have had Dr. Selim Kuru as my advisor when I was new to graduate studies and life in the US. I greatly admire his intellect, curiosity, professionalism, and character. He set an example for many of us by always investing extra time and energy into his students’ scholarly advancement. I would like to also express my thanks to Prof. Hatice Aynur, Dr. Deniz Aktan Küçük, Dr. Yunus Uğur, Dr. Himmet Taşkömür, Dr. Vildan Coşkun, and my colleagues at the Association for the Teaching of Turkish as A Foreign Language (YADOT Eğitim Derneği), for their friendship, encouragement and support, and to Gail Godbey for helping me get through the editing and proofreading process. Prof. Zehra Toska ignited my interest in Ottoman women’s studies as an undergraduate student at Boğaziçi University. She sent us, her Turkish literature students, to the newly established Women’s Library in Istanbul for a course project, and it was there that I first came across Ottoman women’s writings. Elif Ekin Akşit, Ayfer Karakaya-Stump, Elizabeth Frierson, Deniz Kandiyoti and Fatmagül Berktay’s works inspired me with their fresh perspectives to the study of the women in the past. I am also grateful to Dr. Nathan Devir, and others at the Middle East Center, the Graduate School and the Marriott Library, who always were there to provide assistance on professional and technical matters. I greatly appreciate the funding from the Center for Values Education (DEM), which made it possible for me to dedicate uninterrupted time to the writing of this dissertation. viii My dear husband, Dr. Mehmet Ali Doğan, has been a true friend, and has offered his support in countless ways. During the summers of 2015 and 2016, which were the most intense periods of my writing, he helped me obtain much-needed books from the Harvard and Duke University libraries, in addition to taking care of our beloved son, Galip. His presence has always comforted me. I cannot begin to express my gratitude and love to my parents, my parents-in-law, and my sisters and brother, for their unconditional support and encouragement. I would also like to dedicate this work in loving memory to my dear father-in-law, Kazım Naci Doğan, a keen writer and journalist, and an idealistic, honest person, whom we lost two days before my dissertation defense. We miss him immensely. ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The growing scholarship on Ottoman women writers, poets and journalists relies predominantly on research describing women's journals, newspapers1 and organizations,2 the study of women's contributions to the feminist3 and nationalist cause and literature, the publication and study of their memoirs, travel narratives and autobiographies,4 fiction5 and nonfiction works6 and manuscripts, theses, articles and monographs on individual writers,7 1 Ayşe Zeren Enis, Everyday Lives of Ottoman Muslim Women: