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WOMEN IN TURKEY. 47
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
-«Gp- • - The Word Harem Has A Very Vari...
constitution of the Mussulman family . The fatal results of this may be most easily judged in the middle classes of Turkish
society , by their servile imitation of the example of the higher . _, Let us enter the harem of a respectable citizen or small country
gentleman . Above all , the privileged traveller ( female of course ) who may wish to pay a visit to this melancholy spot , must not have
any illusions , and must be prepared to surmount much repugnance . Picture to yourselves a wing of the house , separated from the
building itself , in which the male servants alone dwell and where the master receives his guests . The entrance to this wing is
generally a vast court yard , where the fowls perch on all kinds of dirt . and rubbish . A wooden staircase , with broken and worm-eaten
,, steps , leads to the upper apartments , which consist of a large vestibule opening on four rooms ; one of these is reserved to the lord
of this abode , who dwells there with his favorite for the moment . The other chambers are occupied by the rest of what is called here
, the family . Women , children , female visitors , the slaves of the master or mistresses , compose the population .
In the East there are no beds , properly so called , nor rooms specially dedicated to repose . Large presses contain during the
day , heaps of mattresses , counterpanes , and pillows . At night , each of the inhabitants of the harem takes from this press what she
requires , makes her bed , no matter where on the floor , and sleeps with her clothes on . When one room is quite full , the new arrivals
establish themselves elsewhere , and if all be crowded , the last comers place themselves in the vestibule or on the stairs . Nothing
can be more offensive to European eyes , than the sight of these ladies rising in the morning , in the habiliments of the preceding
day , all faded and tumbled by the pressure of the mattress and the irregular movements of sleep .
The principal object of the head of a Turkish family being to multiply this family as much as possible , everything in domestic
life is subservient to this consideration . Should a wife remain childless two or three years , she is sent away , her husband replacing
heti by another . Nobody cares for the regrets or jealousy of the poor forsaken one ; but it is right to add , that if , instead of tears
and lamentations , she takes upon herself to get rid of her rival in any way , nobody cares for the fate of the other . I believe , therefore ,
that nowhere are to be found any creatures more degraded than the Turkish women of the middle classes , this degradation is stamped
on their countenances . It is difficult to pronounce as to their beauty , for their cheeks , lips , eyebrows , and eyelids are disfigured by thick
layers of paint , applied without taste or moderation ; their shape is spoiled by the ridiculous cut of their garmentsand their locks are
, replaced by goats' hair dyed a deep orange ; the expression of their features is that of stupidity , coarse sensuality , hypocrisy , and
harshness—not the slightest trace of any principle of morality or
religion . Their children at once occupy and weary them , they take
Women In Turkey. 47
WOMEN IN TURKEY . 47
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1859, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091859/page/47/
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