Halide Edip was Turkey’s Susan B. Anthony; a well educated, self-assured modern woman campaigning for an expanded role for all women in the political process. Under Islamic rule in the former Ottoman Empire, women were better off than in most countries in Europe, but they were still completely deprived of office or political power. Slowly, with Edip’s tireless campaigning and the rise of a new Turkish republic from the ashes of the former empire, that began to change.

On this day, December 14, in 1934, Turkey’s constitution expanded the right to vote for women from only municipal and local elections to all national ones.

Although technically equal in law, Turkish society places barriers for women entering the political fields. There is still a strong societal view, which many women themselves buy into, that women’s traditional roles are in the domestic circles, in family management, and that is where they should stay. At the same time, women in the political circles are often excluded from the decision-making process.