To start off, the word "ana" can mean "mother" as well as, "the primary" or the "essential." In fact, the "ana" prefix is used in many pertinent places in the Turkish language, for example "anayasa" the word for the constitution. This should not come as much of a surprise as women have always held a pertinent role in Turkey and the many civilizations rooted in the lands of the country it is now.
Goddess figures have been excavated in Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement dating back to 7,500 BC in what is now Konya. Mother Goddess figurines can also be found in Hacilar, an early settlement in present day Burdur that dates back to 7,000 BC.
The Phrygians, who established their capital city just 80 km southwest of what is now the Turkish capital of Ankara, worshipped Cybele, an Anatolian mother goddess in the eighth century BC and beyond. Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae, who valiantly conquered Cyrus of Persia in the sixth century BC, is also considered to be the first female ruler in history. In Tengrism, also known as the "Sky God Religion", one of the oldest religions in the ancient Turkish world, incorporated elements of polytheism, shamanism and totemism, also placing high importance on the female role, citing women as the reason for creation. This was also the religion of the Huns.
The Seljuks, predecessors to the Ottoman Empire, often had women of nobility playing an active role in public policy and affairs and women also held positions of power in the early Ottoman Empire, as witnessed by the North African traveler Ibn Battuta who recorded seeing the conquered city of Iznik being commanded by one of the sultan's consorts.
However, it wasn't until the 16th and 17th centuries and the era dictated as the Sultanate of Women in which the consorts and wives, mothers and even daughters of sultans went on to hold significant positions of influential power. From the start of the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, who merged the imperial harem into the palace, and for the following nearly 130 years, it was the women, known as the "Valide Sultans" for mothers and "Haseki Sultans" for the mothers of princes who became two of the most prominent and influential positions in government in practice, if not by law.
The first wave of feminism in Turkey occurred in the early 20th century during the decline of the Ottoman Empire when elite and educated women in Istanbul began organizing in conjunction with the Tanzimat reforms to improve women's rights. These early feminists published women magazines in a variety of languages and established different organizations dedicated to the advancement of women. The first women's association in Turkey, the Ottoman Welfare Organization of Women, was founded in 1908 and prominent writers, journalists and politicians such as Fatma Aliye Topuz, Halide Edip Adıvar and Nezihe Muhiddin also joined the movement.
These women in themselves marked a number of firsts in female achievement. In addition to being a women's rights activist, Fatma Aliye Topuz (1862-1936) is credited by literary circles as being the first female novelist in Turkish literature and the Islamic world. You can see a portrait of her as adorned on the 50 TL banknote we all use today.
Perhaps the most famous Turkish female literary figure of the early republic however is Halide Edip Adıvar (1884-1964), who was a novelist, nationalist, and political leader for women's rights. With a command of English, French, Greek and Arabic as well as her native Turkish, she became the first female member of the Turkish Hearth (Hearth (Türk Ocağı) in 1911 and was the first Turkish woman to teach at Istanbul University (then known as Darülfunun) in 1918. In 1920, along with journalist Yunus Nadi, she established Turkey's first news agency "Anadolu Ajansı," to inform of developments in the Turkish War of Liberation. She later earned the rank of sergeant in the nationalist army during the Greco-Turkish War and detailed her accounts in the book "The Turkish Ordeal."
Nezihe Muhiddin (1889-1958) was also a women's rights activist, journalist and political leader who made her mark on Turkish history by being the founder of the Republic of Turkey's first political party, "Kadınlar Halk Fırkası" (Women's People Party) in 1923. In another first, Sabiha Gökçen (1913-2001) an adopted daughter of the founder of the Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was not only Turkey's first female aviator but also became the world's first female combat pilot.
In Turkey, women won the right to vote in 1930, decades ahead of countries such as France, Switzerland and Greece and in 1934 they received universal suffrage. Just one month ago marked the 80th anniversary of the 1935 elections in Turkey, credited as being the first in the world in which women ran for office, where they won 18 seats. In 1993, Tansu Çiller became the first female Prime Minister of Turkey, an achievement for women in Turkey that came before Western countries such as Germany, Denmark, Norway, Australia, Canada and New Zealand as well as France, Italy and the United States, which have yet to elect a female head of state.
In 2002, the Turkish government reformed Turkish criminal and civil law, equalizing all rights of women and men for properties which owned during marriages. Additions to the Turkish constitution oblige the state to use all necessary means to promote the equality of the sexes. Meanwhile, in the past few years, family courts have been created, labor laws instituted and programs implemented against domestic violence and to improve access to education for girls. Female literacy rates have risen to 99 percent and in the 2012-2013 academic year, the schooling ratio of girls (at 99.61 percent as of 2014 according to the Turkish Statistical Institute) exceeded that of boys for the first time in Turkish history. Turkey also has one of the highest percentages of female academics at 47.5 percent, according to the Times Higher Education global gender index, which also reveals Turkey is the country to come closest to having an equal gender split in academia. In the judiciary, Zerrin Güngör is the third female to serve as chief justice in the Council of State.
The number of women standing for electoral office in Turkish elections has grown exponentially over the past 10 years. In 2011, the number of women in parliament rose to 78, a three-fold increase compared to the figure of 24 members of Parliament in 2002. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) intends to break a record in the June 7, 2015 general elections by having 80 MPs run for office.
