The method of using non-Muslim women as intermediaries between men and Muslim businesswomen was a common phenomenon in all classes in the Ottoman Empire.
Muslim women were provided formal control of their own money, and thus theoretically allowed to participate in business.
However, in practice their participation in business was hampered by the fact that it was not seen as respectable for women to come in contact with men outside of the family.
The French traveler Pierre Belon noted this phenomenon in the 16th century and reported that: The kiras of the Imperial harem were simply the most prominent of these non-Muslim go-betweens.
In 1622, an unnamed Jewish woman, possibly a Kira to a sister of Sultan Osman II (r. 1618–1622), is noted to have promoted a candidate to the office of governor of Moldavia by the name of Locadello; and in 1709, another female intermediary, possibly a Kira to the mother of Sultan Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730), is noted to have assisted the Jewish physician Daniel de Fonseca in passing information to the sultan's mother regarding to the Ottoman-Swedish alliance against Russia.