Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1915-09-11
TURKISH MARRIED LIFE
Mother-in-Law is Supreme in
The Household There.

is no longer that of female slaves to
husbands for they have made great
progress. toward a more free and
emancipated life during the last few
years-they still seem content to adj
here to various manners and GUS
toms which, in the past, have had so
much to do with Turkeys general
deterioration. The imperial harem,
for instance, in spite Of certain
changes and certain privileges ac-
corded to the imperial Ottoman prin-
ces and princesses, still remains ha-
rem in the real sense Of the.word-
part Of an oriental house exclusively
kept for the use of women.
Across its threshold no man may
enter, and one gathers some idea of
the still somnolent character of
Turkish women from the fact that
although the inmates of the harem
are always asked four times TAT the
end of each year whether they would
like to marry and leave, they invari-
ably prefer to remain. "And yet"
says Miss Grace Ellison, in IAN Eng
lish woman in a Turkish Harem,"
not one of the women seem .in the
least to feel her slavery, and no
doubt they would turn their backs
in horror on the ugly, unprotected
existence of some of the women of
my country"
Polygamy, according to Miss Eli
son does not exist nowadays in Tur-
key, or at least it is very exception
al. Even many members of the i'm
perial family content themselves
with one wife The reason for this
is only too obvious. when four
wives meant to their possessors four
tillers of the land" said a witty pa.
sha, there was some sense inspolyg-
amy, but not when they buy their
dresses at Paquin'sp'
One of the strangest phases of
Turkish married life concerns the
position of the mother-in-law. Il
know no Turkish wife," says the au-
thoress, who does not live either
with her husbands or her own par
ents. Some parents make it stipu-
lation before consenting to their
daughters marriage that she shall
live with them, and have met some
parents who have refused good mar
riages for their daughters simply be
cause they could not allow them t.
leave their home. The Turkish
, mother urges her son to marry a
soon as possible. He marries before
he can even keep himself. His fam
liz sees nothing extraordinary in the
fac that they have not only to keer
him, but his wife and family"
The mother-in-law, apparently, is
all powerful in the Turkish house.
hold. 1t is she who is head of the
house. who sits in the place of honor
who is first greeted. who gives per.
mission to do such and such thing
and who is called by her daughter
in-law Hanoum Effendi (honored
LADY,.
In regard to the choice of hus-
band, it is interesting to note that
the Turkish woman now demands at
any rate, the privilege of talking
with the man she is to live with be-
fore her fate is signed and sealed.
"She does not have the opportuni-
| ty," Gays Miss Ellison, "of knowing
him as we Englishwomen know our
future husbands, but she can at least
know whether he will get on her
nerves, in which case she can refuse
to marry him.
Judging, however, as she still
d )es, by instinct. she generally choos
es at least man whose physical ap-
pearance pleases her. Many women,
however, have owned to me that
they accepted their husbands not
with any feeling of gratitude or de-
light, but rather with one of pro.
found thankfulness that they were
no worse. philadelphia Enquirer,