In the Ottoman Empire, women enjoyed a diverse range of rights and were limited in diverse ways depending on the time period, as well as their religion and class. The empire, first as a Turkoman beylik, and then a multi-ethnic, multi-religious empire, was ruled in accordance to the qanun, the semi-secular body of law enacted by Ottoman sultans. Furthermore, the relevant religious scriptures of its many confessional communities played a major role in the legal system, for the majority of Ottoman women, these were the Quran and Hadith as interpreted by Islamic jurists, often termed sharia. Most Ottoman women were permitted to participate in the legal system, purchase and sell property, inherit and bequeath wealth, and participate in other financial activities, rights which were unusual in the rest of Europe until the 19th century.
Women's social life was often one of relative seclusion. The extent of seclusion changed, sometimes drastically, depending on class. Urban women lived in some amount of sex segregation during most of the empire's history, as many social gatherings were segregated, and many upper-class urban women veiled in public areas; rural women, on the other hand, often did not have the same restrictions placed on them. Veiling and sex segregation customs were therefore seen as a sign of status, privilege and class until Westernization; afterwards, it was seen as a sign of Ottoman and Islamic values.
The Sultanate of Women, an era that dates back to the 1520s, was a period during which high-ranking women wielded considerable political power and public importance through their engagement in domestic politics, foreign negotiations, and regency. Valide sultans, mothers of the sultan, gained considerable influence through harem politics. Some of the most influential valide sultans were Nurbanu Sultan, Safiye Sultan, Handan Sultan, Halime Sultan, Kösem Sultan and Turhan Sultan. Although Hürrem Sultan was not a valide she is believed to be the starter of the era by being the first concubine married to a sultan and given the title Haseki, meaning favourite.
Later periods saw serious political and religious opposition to further expansion of women's rights, until clear developments in women's rights in Europe and North America started to influence the Ottomans. The Tanzimat reforms of the nineteenth century created additional rights for women, in line with these developments. These reforms were far-reaching particularly in the field of education, with the first schools for girls starting in 1858. 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.
History
14th and 15th centuries 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. However, women were in large part absent from the political sphere, as the state's expansionist character placed military might first and foremost, and men were thought of as more competent in the largely coincident spheres of military and politics. Sex segregation in certain contexts was common in the early empire; women were in many cases segregated from men in intimate but non-sexual environments.
16th century The 16th century was marked by Suleiman's rule, in which he created the title of haseki sultan, the chief consort or wife of the sultan, and further expanded the role of royal women in politics by contributing to the creation of the second most powerful position in the Ottoman Empire, valide sultan, the mother of the sultan. This was the beginning of the Sultanate of Women, where women were, for the first time in the empire's history, active in the political sphere, and the Imperial Harem wielded immense political power. However, clashes between the relatively egalitarian public, the Sufi orders they followed (many of which included female sheikhs), and the more conservative Ulema continued. A manifestation of this was the case of kaymak shops, in which women and men would meet regularly, regardless of marital status. 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.Reşad Ekrem Koçu, Tarihimizde Garip Vakalar, Varlık Yayınları, p. 83.Şemsettin Kutlu, Bu Şehri İstanbul Ki, Milliyet Yayınları, p. 366.İlhan Tekeli, Dünden Bugüne İstanbul Ansiklopedisi, Vol. 3, Kültür Bakanlığı, p. 361
17th and 18th centuries The 17th and 18th centuries are often regarded as the last two centuries of pre-Westernized Ottoman culture. Women's rights were still seen by European visitors, such as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, as relatively robust at the time, as a woman's right to divorce, own property and refuse conjugal sex were not commonplace in the rest of Europe until the late 19th century. It was also during this period that Ottoman society harbored a relatively open view of most forms of sexuality, and many authors, such as Enderunlu Fazıl, who published books about both men's and women's sexuality, marked a departure from the largely male-oriented view of sexuality in the early empire. However, this new genre of erotic work concerning women often received significant backlash, as unlike discussions of the sexuality of and in between men, which were often accepted and even celebrated, women's sexuality was often seen as a private matter. This resulted in the regulation and censorship of certain books, most famously Enderunlu Fazıl's Zenanname (lit. The Book of Women). Furthermore, some sultans, such as Osman III, were known for their negative attitude towards women. 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,M. Çağatay Uluçay, Padişahların Kadınları ve Kızları, Ötüken Yayınları, p. 147. while punishing those who did not respect these laws, sometimes with death.Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Türkiye Ansiklopedisi 3, İletişim Yayınları, pp. 858-859.
19th and 20th centuries
The 19th century was, in large part, a century of Westernization for the empire. Because of the relative stagnation of women's rights in the Ottoman Empire; European observers, as well as secret societies such as the Young Ottomans, stated a need for major reform. The Young Ottomans criticized Ottoman customs that prevented developments in women's rights and talked about the importance of women in society, all while synthesizing said changes with Islamic values.Finkel 2006, p. 475. As a result of all these efforts, in the second half of the 19th century, midwife schools and secondary schools were opened. These changes had many opponents, particularly conservatives such as Abdul Hamid II and many members of the Ulema, but also others; many scholars and authors, such as Ahmet Mithat Efendi, agreed with most of these changes, but resisted the sentiment that Ottomans should "implicitly accept Western superiority", while "explicitly rejecting" it, according to Ussama Makdisi. To this day, the effect of Westernization on women's rights in the Ottoman Empire remains controversial among scholars.
World War I also caused various developments in terms of women's rights. 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. This regulation could only survive for a year, as it was later abolished by the Freedom and Accord Party after the Allied partition of the Ottoman Empire.
Social life
During most of the Ottoman Empire, many women's interactions were limited to socialization among fellow women, and members of their family. Women socialized with each other at their homes and also at bathhouses. High society women, particularly those who did not live in the palace, visited one another at each other's homes, however, those who lived in the palace were subject to strict etiquette that prevented ease of socializing. Women would often bring their finest bathing accessories, such as embroidered towels and high, wooden sandals, to social events. As with any society, style of dress played an important role in the social lives of Ottoman women. 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". The way an Ottoman woman dressed indicated not only her status in society but also the occasion. There were two categories to dress: the clothing for daily dress and the attire for special occasions. On these special occasions, such as weddings and engagements, women would socialize outside their family and surroundings.
With the spread of Western influence during the 19th century, Ottoman women had increased interactions with European women. The interactions with Westerners during this period changed the social lives of many Ottoman and Western women, and it became normal for Ottoman women to invite and accept European acquaintances into their homes and their lives.
Harem
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. In the context of the Ottoman Empire, however, the word 'harem' is inextricably linked to the Imperial Harem, where female members of the Ottoman court spent a considerable amount of their time. Turkish popular history of the Imperial Harem is based on the memoirs, personal letters, and travel accounts by foreign women, and one of the best ways to have a look inside the Imperial Harem is with the help of people who have personal experiences with the Harem. The Sultan's Harem is described as a very diverse place, with the majority of women there being enslaved Christians.
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. She compared it to the Harem from Muhammad’s time and claimed that women had every right in the Harem of his time and they possessed genuine freedom.
However, different people with Harem experiences often had different points of view. 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.
Education Prior to the nineteenth century, there did not exist any formal public education for Ottoman women. Young Ottoman girls were taught through harem education; they learned skills such as "sewing, embroidery, playing the [Ottoman] harp (çeng), singing, and memorizing the customs and ceremonies".