Women in the Ottoman Empire

However, the curriculum of these schools were largely focused on teaching women to become wives and mothers, and structural reform, such as universal suffrage, would only take place in the early years of the Turkish Republic, the empire's successor state.

Women in the early Ottoman Empire exercised considerable personal and economic rights according to the Hanafi interpretation of sharia, the qanun, as well as other documents in certain religious contexts.

[8] However, clashes between the relatively egalitarian public, the Sufi orders they followed (many of which included female sheikhs), and the more conservative Ulema continued.

Many scholars from the Ulema saw this as a sign of wavering religious devotion and appealed for a ban on women entering kaymak shops, which, while later repealed, was implemented in 1573.

Osman III, while alone among sultans in the severity of action he took in this pursuit, prohibited women in Constantinople from going out in the streets in fancy clothes, and ordered them to dress plainly and in a veiled fashion,[19] while punishing those who did not respect these laws, sometimes with death.

In this period, legal regulations were made to sharia-based laws; polygamy was left to the woman's consent, and marriage was subjected to state control.

Women would often bring their finest bathing accessories, such as embroidered towels and high, wooden sandals, to social events.

According to the wife of the British ambassador to Istanbul during the 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the attire of Ottoman women "reflected their dignity and rights".

[14] While harem has many different descriptions, and could describe any sex segregated space reserved for women, its most literal usage is to describe the part of a house reserved for women in many Islamic cultures, a custom comparable to (and according to Nikki Keddie, possibly borrowed from) the Greek-Byzantine gynaeceum.

[28] Cavidan, Abbas Hilmi II’s wife and a convert to Islam, is one of the women that have shared her analyses of the Imperial Harem.

She said that the Harem was preserved in a manner that was desired by what she called a false version of Islam, giving rise to a ruling class that was full of jealousies and was not in accordance with the principles and the doctrine of Muhammad.

Cavidan expressed criticism of the religion and culture she embraced, whereas others, such as Leyla Saz, conveyed her childhood and young adulthood memories within the Ottoman Harem in very positive terms.

[30] Women that began their education during their adolescence started by focusing on formal skills, their manner to speak, reading and writing.

With a female dominated staff, the magazine aimed to enable women to evolve into better mothers, wives, and Muslims.

The valide sultan would attend public ceremonies and even meetings with high ranking government officials, all the while remaining heavily veiled.

[31] Due to their confinement, the women of the Imperial Harem had many networks that aided in their political influence, and this granted them considerable control; the valide sultan, haseki sultan and leading concubines had the capability to shape the careers of all harem officials by arranging marriages of princesses or of manumitted slaves.

[39] Regarding divorce, the Ottomans believed that a troubled and unhappy family relationship would harm the union and society at large.

Women in the Ottoman Empire could inherit property from their deceased parents or husbands, although often to a lesser extent to their male relatives.

If the deceased had only daughters and a wife (or wives), those successors had to pay a tapu tax (a sort of entry fine) to the landowner in order to get the land.

[45] Wealthy families possessed huge properties, such as many houses, animals, vast lands, and large numbers of servants.

[47] These women possessed a considerable influence, and Muslim women in particular bought and sold property, inherited and bequeathed wealth, established waqfs (endowments), borrowed and lent money, and at times served as holders of Timars (a sort of fiefdom given to Ottoman cavalry and the lower nobility).

Because women had access to the legal system, much of the information about their role in Ottoman society is sourced from court records.

One example documents a court record from 1683 in which a woman sued someone who allegedly seized a shop that she technically inherited after her husband died.

[41] There is also evidence of women lending money to multiple different people at a time, indicating that they could serve as semi-professional moneylenders.

[41] Despite their limited participation in the dominant guild system, it is likely that women established their own organizations, particularly for primarily women-led services like singing, dancing, washing, and nursing.

[43] A subset of women artisans in the Ottoman Empire worked entirely on their own, producing goods in their homes and selling them in the streets, eschewing the support of labor organizations, middlemen, and traditional shops.

[41] Slavery was a considerable part of the Ottoman economy, and for enslaved women, this was frequently in sexual roles, including marriage at a young age in the unpaid labor market.

[53] Still, the slave trade was not an exclusive one, as people of all races and gender identities could have been thrust into the market, one exception being those who were classified as dhimmis, or non-Muslims who submit to Ottoman law.

[57] During the late Ottoman Empire, Istanbul became a central hub for the trafficking of women, with networks operating both domestically and internationally.

Female prostitutes generally attempted to limit their sexual interactions to “confessional lines” since cases were more likely to be brought to court when religious boundaries were crossed.