The ottoman women’s transformative agency: from traditional to modern interiors

Abstract

While scholars have studied the significance of the press in the process of modernization of the Ottoman Empire in general terms, the effects of women’s periodicals on domestic architecture and design have not been adequately investigated. In the Tanzimat period (Reorganization) (1839–1876), some two thousand weekly and monthly newspapers and periodicals were published. Affordable press and the rise of literacy – particularly female literacy were the two driving forces of modernization. Readership expanded further in the Hamidian era (1876–1909). Later, perhaps emboldened by the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1908, Ottoman women published opinion pieces, designating themselves as authors. Operating as advice literature, women’s periodicals offered information on the latest European fashions in dress, music, crafts, the arts, family life, and etiquette. Some authors advocated for reforming residential interiors to reflect a more modern world view, while traditionalists opposed it. Ironically, even when traditionalist authors were warning their readers against the ill effects of Westernization to evoke fear in hearts and minds, they were still exposing them to a forbidden world; a world in which women had roles beyond wifehood and motherhood. The public discourse on the role of women in society, dress, and public etiquette led to the questioning of traditional gendered domestic spaces. The new Ottoman woman had to dwell in a modern domestic interior that reflected her newly-found values.