Srpouhi Dussap

[2] Dussap was born as Srpouhi Vahanian in the Ortakoy district of Constantinople to a prosperous upper-class Armenian Catholic family.

At the time, wealthy families regularly imitated the trends and customs of Western European, primarily French society.

However, after being tutored by the Armenian poet Mkrtich Beshiktashlian, Dussap began to show a deep affection for the language as well as her heritage.

Dussap's concern with female subordination, inferior education, and lack of financial independence was developed in the later novels Siranush (1884) and Araksia, or The Governess, (1887).

She was very much concerned about the situation of the female peasantry of the Ottoman Empire, attacking the traditional patriarchal structures behind their ignorance, and the male oppression that led to forced marriages in the countryside.

For these liberal ideas, she faced resentment from some prominent Armenian intellectuals, such as Krikor Zohrab, but was esteemed by progressivists.