Nuriye Ulviye Mevlan Civelek

Nuriye Ulviye Mevlan Civelek (* 1893 probably in Hacıvelioba ; † April 9, 1964 in Kırıkhan ) was a Turkish women's rights activist, journalist and founder of the first Muslim women's rights organization in Turkey. She founded the country's first feminist women's magazine.

Life

Nuriye Ulviye Yediç was born in 1893 as the daughter of the farmer Mahmut Yediç and his wife Safiye Hanım, probably in the village of Hacıvelioba near Gönen . Other sources name today's Syria as the place of birth, but also the Anatolian Göreme . Her father had to flee as a Circassian from the North Caucasus when the Russian Empire conquered the region. Since the family lived in poor conditions, the parents decided to send the girl to the Yıldız Palace for training at the age of six . She grew up there and learned the rules of court. As was common in the Ottoman Empire at the time, she was married in 1906 at the age of 13. Her husband Hulusi Bey was a foster brother of the Sultan and died soon after the wedding.

With the inherited money, Nuriye Ulviye founded the women's magazine Kadınlar Dünyası (“World of Women”) on April 4, 1913 . Just one month later, on May 28, 1913, she founded the Osmanlı Müdâfaa-i Hukuk-ı Nisvan Cemiyeti (Ottoman Society for the Defense of Women's Rights), with the aim of improving women's educational opportunities and their opportunities in professional life, and dressing regulations to reform. Even if the association was primarily an organization of Muslim women, members of ethnic minorities and European journalists were also members of the association. Initially, the magazine was published daily. After 100 issues, they switched to a weekly publication with 25 pages. With the publication of the first photo of a Muslim woman, the newspaper broke a taboo. Only female employees and predominantly journalists were employed.

In September 1913, Nuriye Ulviye married the journalist and politician Rıfat Mevlan (sometimes Mevlanzâde Rıfat Bey).

In her articles, Mevlan set out clear goals, including women's rights to access higher education, equal pay and admission to civil service. She kept repeating that an improvement in the standard of living for women would also improve the situation for men. She also advocated the wearing of a headscarf instead of a veil, called for equal rights in marriage, and condemned arranged marriages. Because of their commitment, women actually achieved improvements: as early as 1913, seven women were employed in the telephone exchange and in 1914 the İnâs Darülfünunu Women's University opened , offering courses in science and literature. From 1913 to 1914, the Kadınlar Dünyası also published a French edition, which was supposed to promote the dialogue between European and Ottoman women's rights activists.

Kadınlar Dünyası was published until May 21, 1921. At this time the Turkish Liberation War was raging and Mevlan's husband was deported in 1923 as a supporter of the Kurdish independence movement and as an opponent of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk . In 1927 Mevlan divorced and ran a student pension. In 1931 she married Ali Muharrem Civelek, a medical student who had lived in her pension during his studies. After successfully completing their studies, the couple left Istanbul and moved to Kırıkhan.

Civelek died there in 1964 and was buried in the Asri cemetery in Antakya .

After her death in 1967, the city library in Kırıkhan was named after her. A street in Kırıkhan also bears her name. Her husband had a well built at the Asri cemetery, which also bears her name. In 1967 the Turkish Women's Council ( Turkish: Türkiye Kadınlar Konseyi ) had a memorial plaque put up in the cemetery.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Serpil Çakır: Mevlan Civelek, Ulviye (1893–1964) . In: Francisca de Haan, Krasimira Daskalova, Anna Loutfi: Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe: 19th and 20th Centuries . Central European University Press, Budapest 2006, pp. 336–339, here: p. 336–337 ( online )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Serpil Çakır: Nuriye Ulviye Civelek Hayati , Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 2016 (Turkish)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Zuhal Özden: Osmanlı'da İlk Kadın Feminist Ulviye Nuriye Mevlan Civelek ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Democrat Haber , Istanbul March 9, 2015 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Serap Canbek: İlk Çerkes feminist Ulviye Mevlan Civelek , Jineps Gazetesi, Istanbul
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Lyndall von Dewitz: Nuriye Ulviye Mevlan Civelek , Istanbul Women's Museum
6. ↑ Elife Biçer-Deveci: The Ottoman Turkish women's movement in the context of international women's organizations . V&R, Bonn University Press, Göttingen / Bonn 2017, p. 106
7. ↑ Vuslat Devrim Altinöz: The Ottoman Women's Movement: Women's Press, Journals, Magazines and Newspapers from 1875 to 1923 . Master's thesis at Miami University, Oxford (Ohio), p. 18 ( online )
8. ↑ İnas Darülfünunu ve Kadınlar Dünyası Dergisi , İnas Darülfünunu / İstanbul Kadın Müzesi / Bianet, p. 1
9. ↑ Hakan Ozoglu: Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries . SUNY Press, Albany 2012, pp. 83, 161 ( online at Google Books )