THE EMANCIPATION OF MOHAMMEDAN WOMEN 45 



r. 



\ 



Photo from Mary Mills Patrick 



the sultan of the ottoman empire going to mosque the day aeter the 



constitution was announced 



one occasion when the girls in a certain 

 school in Stamboul were to be vacci- 

 nated a half-doctor was called in. The 

 Turkish government has until the pres- 

 ent time refused the full doctor's diploma 

 to foreign women who have desired to 

 practice in the empire, the only excep- 

 tion being an American physician, Dr 

 Mary Eddy, who is practicing in Syria. 

 The medical profession will be one of 

 the first for Turkish women to enter 

 under the new regime. 



From time immemorial the complex 

 assembly of women in the palace of the 

 Sultan have had their finances controlled 

 by a woman, who keeps under her a 

 number of secretaries or scribes, as they 

 are called, who are also women. In the 

 beginning this office was held by the 

 Valide Sultana, or mother of the Sultan, 

 who always holds a high position in the 

 palace. At the present time the woman 

 in control is called the Treasurer of the 

 Harem. 



The harem of the Sultan of Turkey 



has usually contained several hundred 

 women, who are privileged to drive 

 about under careful espionage, to visit 

 the leading shops of the city, and to in- 

 vest freely in silks, laces, and jewels. 

 The control of the finances of so large a 

 number of women, who are allowed to 

 spend such large sums of money, has 

 never been a small matter and shows the 

 ability of Mohammedan women along 

 commercial lines. 



Women of the lower classes, old 

 enough to travel somewhat freely within 

 the limits of the Turkish Empire, have 

 organized simple systems of buying and 

 selling, somewhat more complicated than 

 that of a peddler, and have traveled back 

 and forth between Egypt, Smyrna, and 

 Constantinople, plying their trade with 

 great success. 



The most familiar example to the in- 

 habitants of Constantinople of what a 

 woman may be privileged to do in com- 

 mon commercial life may be seen at 

 Beshiktash, a village on the Bosphorus. 



