Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1904-05-21
THE LIMELICHT
ON TURKISH LIFE.
Remarkable Disclosures by a Oar.
ing Princess Who Defies
The Sultan.
STRANGE STORIES OF HAMID.
They We're Suppressed by the Aus.
trlaa Authorities Who Feared to
Grlcyc a NelghbOriug Monarch,
Special Correspondence.

Special correspondence
VIENNA, May l0-Princess Hal ie
\ I Bonaiad, a born Turkish Prin-
" cess, daughter Of Mahmoud
Pasha Ben-Ayad, recently ad-
dressed crowded meeting Of tho Vlen-
m womeng clubs and gave her audi
tors O. glimpse into the darkest corner
OF the Ottoman empire the harem. But
II IL what she was not permitted to
say rather than what she said that
concerns this article.
Driven out--by too much freedom Of
sptoch about the sultan--from the Sc
olusion Of the Turkish realm into west
ern civilization, tho princess Is devot-
ing herself 10 campaign against the
ignorance and bavbarsnl prevailing III
The dominions OF AbdGl Hand. After
lectuhng IN some Of the principal Euro
pean cities, the princess has planned a
Visit TO the United States, where she
hopas to enlist the aid OF the progress
tve American women on behalf OF her
ignorant and oppressed Turkish sister.
Lecturing In Austria Ia not the sim
pie matter that IL Is In America or
England, Before n public meeting can
be called In Vienna the permission OF
The police must first be obtained, and
the chief Of police sends a representa-
tive 10 the meeting, who occupies a scat
on the platform. and has the power to
close the proceedings Immediately II
anything IL said or done which Is likely
to be at all dlspleasing to the authori-
ties In the case Of q prepared lecture
8 copy must first be submitted to the
police Tor their afproval and censor
ship Princess Hairless lecture appears
" have contained many things dis.
pleasing to the official mind, and when
he received the copy back she found
that considerable portions OF IL had
leen completely cut out.
have obtained from the princess the
prohibited parts, and they follow in
her own WORKS. Why the Vienna po-
Ice should have been so sensitive re-
gardlng the feelings OF Abdul Hamld
and his court is somewhat difficult TO
Imagine; but Il is easy enough to see
why Turkey Is not safe place for the
princess, for this suppressed lecture
perhaps the most vivid picture Of the
condition Of Turkish women that was
ever given from an authoritative
source. Here Is what the Austrian po-
ice wouldn't let her highness say:
Inc islam, In It's proper sense, af-
tords 10 the Turkish wife rights and
privileges which might satisfy the most
fastidous European. But the govern
ment forces the Mussulman woman to
pine away under the curse of utter ig-
noranoe. At school, II she goes to
school, at all, she only mechanically
learns TO read the Koran The Koran,
however, being written in Arabic. she
naturally cannot understand a word
OF II, In this way she does not even
get to Know her own religion,-for the |
interest OF the state ordalns that the
Mussulman woman be made acquainted |
merely with her outward form, not |
WIN her true spirit
tor The same reason first her parents
ana later her husband generally forbid |
me woman all reading-even the read |
ing OF such newspapers as appear after |
thorites.
20 not think | take too gloomy n |
view when insist that the entire |
country OF Turkey scarcely possesses |
wv educated women. And Of these not
one was brought up In Turkish school. |
gu had foreign teachers But even this |
loes not suit the sultan. Three years
aRo ne published law prohibiting 4
turkish families from engaging foreign
tutors or goYernesses
Let me give a description of the ar
.ahgements for Turkish engagement
)r marriage,
me female. relatives OF the young
NAV Wishing to marry look about for a
maiden for whom husband is wanted
'"ue found, the maiden IL brought In