Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-06-12
Hdre1s Beauty a Mgtb
william +. Ellis in New York Herald.

A greater number OF beautiful women NAV
be seen within FIVE minutes on Fifth avenue or
day on Galata Bridge, which is ConstantinoplA's
great artery Of life.
Americans here Gin Constantinople) naturally
now make fippant remarks about the veil as
benehcient institution. With the charm of the
unknown gone, they say, there remains no
other charm. Which is jesting manner Of
declaring that the legendary loneliness of raw
ishing Turkish enchantresses is non-existent.
Now that all eyes may see and judge, it is
evident that, so far as beauty goes, Moslem
women are like the run of all other women in
the Near East.
There are, Of course, attractive faces Con-
ssidering fhat they have just come from behind
The veil, all are singularly bold and unabashed,
giving an eye for an eye. Manifestly they enjoy
their new freedom, for it is limited sort Of
pleasure to see without being seen.
As for the Turkish female types Of the Gig
aret advertisement-well, let US hope that the
cigarets themselves are more nearly as repre-
sented. For the Turkish veil. about which reapns
of speculation have been written, concealed an
entire ethnology of types The Christian women
of Turkey-Armenians, Greeks, and Syrians Jas
we'll as Jewesses-are far nearer to standard
type.
in Turkish dress, but with the familiar wells
throws back over their heads, women who we're
as black as any negress in Mississippi-they
might have been fat Dinah's sisters; light
haired, blond Circassans; others who might
have been Scandinavians or north Russians;
true Mongolsl who looked like direct iniporta-
tons from Peking. and, as live buxcrl, smil-
ing Irish face! In addition, there was COM
monty the Levantine type, the resultai. of the
Turks mixed blood with his oaptives through
hundreds Of years. Not since arriving have
seen face that made me wish were an artist.
Anybody who knew prewar Turkey expert
ences a. distinct shock to come upon Mosem
woman, with veil thrown back, sitting on
street corner, peddling sweets. In this part OF
the Moslem world it was an axiom that
"woman's place is in the home; and the win
dows of the home were closely latticed to pre-
vent her being seen; and most extravagant pre-
cautions were adopted and supported by the
law to keep neighbours window from over
looking ones garden or harenl
Mos1em women with wells thrown back over
the old-fashioned head wrap (they will soon
come to modern millinery and tailored street
clothes) work in stores and offices. During the
war they even did what cleaning of the streets
was done in Constantnople. The new woman"
has landed with bound in this part of the Mos
lem world, which sets the fashion for all Islam.
Henceforth men may see the women they
marry before marriage. That is revolutionary,
a swift abandonment of the custom of centuries.
how far removed from our American standards
Of free, natural, and wholesome friendship be-
tween boys and girls, men and women. the
East has been. No Turkish man has been per-
mitted so much as to see the face of any good
woman, save his own mother or sister or other
close relative. This sudden reversal of the
Moslem requirements of women is simply I'M
calculable in its consequences.
Certain of these consequences have been
alarmingly bad. The war "enfancipated" Turk
ish women to evil as we'll as to good. Virtue,
by the old code, had been matter of re-
straint The restraint having gone, the virtue
has too often gone ALSO The growth of i'm
morality among the Turkish women is reported
to me by Turks to have been most alarming.
Upon this point I am careful to quote only in
telligent Turks and not Christians or possible
detractors. ' t'& q
They all say conditions are very bad. z
Transition conditions in Turkey create
woman question with a vengeance. I'm
equipped by education or spiritual ideals for
new conditions of life, the vast host Of now un-
thoughtful persons
The veil stood for the idea that woman was
property, mere chattel She was not her own,
but rather a toy or tool or slave. A mans
exclusive right in one or more women-the
number depending largely upon his ability to
support them-was embodied in the veil, or its
extension, the harem. Woman had no recog-
nized claims, no fellowship with the great out
side world ..St
Throwing aside the veil the Turkish woman
inevitably discards what it represented. She
has entered upon a new order for herself, her
children and her home.