A Turkish Woman's European Impressions (Cultures in Dialogue)

Born into the Ottoman Muslim elite, Zeyneb Hanoum and her sister Melek Hanoum were given a Western-style education by their progressive father, who expected them subsequently to live the segregated lives of Ottoman ladies. Rebelling, the sisters arranged to meet the French author Pierre Loti and collaborated with him on his famous book Les Désenchantées/The Disenchanted in the hope that harnessing European intellectual support would speed up Ottoman social reform. Fleeing Istanbul in 1906 for fear of imperial reprisals, the sisters traveled in disguise to Europe, hoping to find "freedom" in the West. Zeyneb Hanum's correspondence with the English feminist Grace Ellison (also this series), provides an account both of their restricted lives in Istanbul and of their disappointment with the state of emancipation of Western women. With Zeyneb Hanum's letters punctuated by Ellison's introduction, commentary, and footnotes, this book challenges Orientalist stereotypes as it exposes the cultural and political agency of Ottoman Muslim women and documents the vibrant engagement between Eastern and Western women at the fin de siècle.