The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-12-18
TIE IaiPossfB1LrTY OF REFORM IN TuRKEY--..s,
RUSSIAN CIRCULAR ON THE EASTERN
QUESTION ATTACK uFoNs AN AMERICAN
MIssIoN-scHooI..


QUESTION rAraAeK UFoNl AN AMERICAN
MIssIoN-scHooL. 81
49, CoNsTANTINOPLE, Nov. 10, 1866,
There is one impossible barrier in the way
of any radical reforms in the East. Poll
ticians have their pet schemes. Lord Pal
merston, especially, asserted more than once
in Parliament that Turkey was already a
model country. But in spite of political
schemes and politicians lies. Turkey is al
most as lar from reform as ever. Whatthcre
is, Is only external. The Turkish, women
constitute barrier against reform, the
strength OF which can only be realized by
those who have been brought into direct
contact with them in their own homes
There are few Europeans in Constantinople
whose experience qualities them to speak or
this subject, and your readers may rely upon
the following statements as literally true
The Ignorance of Turkish women is absolute.
Here and there one can be found who knows
how to read little in the Koran, and one
who can write down and add mp simple
accounts, but such a one is a rarG aaris. In
a few families in COnstantinople and
Smyrna such as Caboull Pacha's and
Mustapha Fazyl Pasha's-one or two women
can be found who read and speak French
l know OF one or two girls who can speak
and read English. But these rare excep-
tons have.no influence upon the great mass
The first wife of the Grand Vizier, for in
stance, IS as profoundly ignorant as the first
wife of the King of Dahomey or the Can
nibal Islands. The few who have learned
French have thereby learned more harm
fhop 1ay ,1x- laa nd IN,
read the worst sort OF French novels. Even
among those Turks. who are themselves
somewhat Europeanized, the idea of educat
ing the women finds no favor. They can
see noapossible good which can come from
such education The education which has
certain marketable value among the
Turks, runs only in the line of what we
sometimes call accomplishments. There are
women in the Turkish harems who can play
very well on the piano or the harp. and
there, are girls. who can dance after the
fashion ofballet dancing. The simple theory
of the Turk is that women is made only to
be slave and to bear children Little edu-
cation is necessary to fit them for this narrow
sphere In his eye, the more they have, the
worse for them All this is pretty well
known already in Europe, although not
fully appreciated. But along with this
ignorance there is an amount of superstition
and fanaticism among the Turkish women
which is almost beyond Imagination. In
credible as it may appear, the Arabian
Nights Tales seem to these women simple
narratives of fact. Spirits and genii have a
larger place in their thoughts and lives than
human beings have. If one of the Sultan's
wives, for example. is sick, it is true that
European physician is sent for to attend her
body, but he is allowed to do nothing until
a spiritual doctor has dealt with the genii
whom she was offended. or with the evil
spirit wh0 has been wreaking his spite upon
her. These Turkish spiritualists not only
deal with the sick in this way, but many
of them profess to be able to raise the dead
by simply breathing upon them. There is
probably not woman in Turkey who does
not believe in them. The absurd tales of
the Koran, and the infinitely more absurd
Mussulman traditions, fare not only as fully
believed as the Bible is among Christians.
but the same things are supposed to be
Transporting every day now. Even in the
harem of the most Europeanized Mussulnan
in Constantinople, the women are under the
spiritual charge of Turkish priest, who
thinks necessary to counteract any foreign
tendencies by making them more super
stitious and :ianatical than their neighbors.
Their faith in Mohammed is as mistaken
and their hatred Of all unbelievers is as fierce
as though they had lived 1900 years ago.
Indeed. it NAV be said of the Turkish wo-
men as a whole that theysare in all respect
the same as 500 years ago. few European
4 II
harcms in Constantinople and Smyrna
Several families have employed English and
French governesscs, but even these last,
after years of labor, have accomplished
almost nothing in removing or modifying
the supcrstitions of the wome.i with whom
they have been associated. Now these wo-
men living in the midst of spirits and
genii-steeped in superstition andignorance,.
unflinching believers in the Koran, are the
wives, tile mothers and the educators of the
ruling race in Turkey. Every bny lives
among them until he is dozen years old,
and few receive any education aftcrward to
modify their early impressions. Even if
these early impressions are exchanged for
some European notions, even a man like
Mustapha Fazyl Pasha, who holds himself
up as a model reformer, does not dare to
reform ms own illafem, or attemP. 70 make
head against the supefsti1tion wlich reisns
there. IL there Is 10 De a genuine REFORM IN
Turkey. 1T must nesin IN the harems; II
must begin In the educasion ana eniiSnten-
ment OF the women. women hsvea vast
influence IN turkey IN spite OF tneir aegraoa-
ton The Suitans mother mas perhaps
more influence than any man In the Empire,
and Turkish women know how to influence,
and oftentimes to rule their husbands, as
well as women IN other lands. While they