The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1921-06-30
PASSING OF THE TURKISH HAREM

No longer does the Turkish woman seek
the Establishments and the fine appoint
ments of the harem. No longer does she
pine for the ease and comfort of the
haremlik with its favors from the selamlik.
She wants her pasha; but he must be
her one and only lover, sharing his affec-
tons no longer unfortunately with the
maidens Of his harem.
She is familiar with the old tradition of
the women as the chattel of the Oriental
in the Eastern Palace of Polygamy, and
she remembers how this seclusion of
women in the household of the pasta was
once a fundamental Oriental conception,
with its origin earlier even than the pre-
cepts of Isalm as set forth in the Koran.
But she disregards entirely the tradition
and custom of the past
For, the veil has been lifted. The
tcharchaf that once obscured her lovely
features has been raised. 1t is still worn,
but hooded over the coiffure, with all her
fine features revealed to the gaze of the
mathematical of the fact that the
harem is fast vanishing into the past to
take its place with the musty old customs
of yesteryear.
What was once ease and luxury to the
Turkish woman has become slavery and
sex degradation. Education, economics
and the war have lifted Oriental woman
hood to a new level of civilization in
which the harem. no longer is to be
tolerated.
"The harem today is approaching the
condition of an almost extinct institution"
says teacher just back from Constan-
tinople. "Only among the oldest families
and in the exclusive old Turkish families
is it maintained at all, and then it is
nothing as compared with the harem of
the late Abdul Hamid who had his thou
sand wives. Among the so-called middle
and poorer classes there is no such thing
as the harem; indeed, these classes have
lot been involved for many years, except
as an occasional handsome girl was in
duced to take up her residence in the
palace of pasta. We are inclined to
think first of the harem so soon as we
mention Turkey; but in Turkey the harem
seems nothing like we assume it to be
from this viewpoint. The assumption that
a powerful pasta bounced upon any girl
and dragged her off like one of the Sabine
women is far from the truth. Polygamy
was long tolerated over there because the
Koran permitted Turk to have more
ligion.
To-day all is changed or changing. The
average man is content to have one wife.
The average woman wants one husband
who is exclusively her own. 1t was not
so long ago that a Turkish woman had
to veil her face to every man except her
father, her brother or her husband. Now
the veil is lifted and the Turkish woman
appears everywhere in public with an open
face.
"Can you imagine the Turkish women
dancing on battleships with the men of
Great Britain? These things are hap
pening all the time now. A Turkish Of
fetal actually appears now at public
function accompanied by his wife, and he
is proud now to have her with him where
once he kept her and his many other wives
in seclusion.
"And the average Turkish official or
man of higher station, whether in affairs
of state, politics or business, wants an
educated wife. She need no longer be
pretty above every other virtue, but she
must be possessed of those qualities that
today are considered woman's greatest
assets.