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COPYRIGHT 2002 Eastern Mediterranean University
Abstract
This article is concerned with the position of women in Turkish society since 1960, and the portrayal of these women in selected novels, short stories and plays by Turkish authors from 1960 until 1980. It examines whether the subordination of women in society is ascribed in literary works to their supposed innate inferiority as women, or is shown to be a consequence of women's circumscribed position and limited possibilities. It investigates literary interpretations of the concept of honour and shame and the nature of female sexuality, as well as analysing the portrayals of women in their different roles: from familial and domestic to independent and revolutionary. This study illustrates the extent to which literature appears to reinforce old ideas and expectations about women, and how much it tends towards a deeper analysis of character and behaviour.
Key words: Turkish novel, Turkish short story, Turkish plays, women, woman's identity.
Introduction
A strong tradition surrounds these notions (the concept of honour and shame and the nature of female sexuality) in Turkey. According to this tradition women are expected to remain virgins until married, and to remain chaste after marriage, but the duty of defending the sexual purity of women is delegated to men. A woman's responsibility in the matter is thus diminished, and her consequent vulnerability means that any situation which may expose her to danger is to be avoided. This is the logic which demands either the exclusion of women from public places, or protective male support when in public, or both. Once a woman's sexual purity has been violated there is no way she can redeem her honour, even if she is an innocent victim of sexual assault. The concern for women's chastity is a social concern, involving convention, rather than a private concern involving moral conscience. Violation of a woman's honour therefore demands public vengeance against the violator, and against the woman if she is in any way seen to have actively or voluntarily participated. The shame attached even to an innocent victim will often force the woman to remove herself from her family in order not to be a constant reminder of the disgrace she has innocently brought upon them. The fact that more women than men, and in particular young girls and young women, commit suicide may well be connected with questions of 'dishonour'. (1) The traditionally early age at which girls are given in marriage, as well as the customs of seclusion, segregation and veiling, and the upholding of 'feminine' virtues such as modesty, submission and docility in the socialisation of girls are all safeguards for maintaining the purity of girls before marriage and for the chastity of all women.
A correlate of the system which requires male control of female sexuality is the concept of unrestrained female sexuality as a dangerous, destructive force. Sexually 'free' women are, however, also subject to male control, in that they are dependent on male clients or patrons, and they are not acknowledged as full members of society either by men or by women. As an extension of the negative values attached to female sexuality, within the family all outward signs of intimacy or affection between husband and wife are traditionally prohibited, especially in front of older members of the family, particularly males, to whom respect must always be shown.
A survey of attitudes among girls at university in Istanbul and their mothers, carried out in the 1970s, shows a sharp decline in the importance attached to premarital chastity from one generation to the next. (2) However, this tendency among the urban, educated female population has not yet filtered through to the villages, where the findings of several researchers suggest that fear of promiscuity through contact with unrelated males is a factor severely inhibiting the recruitment of women into paid employment. (3) On the other hand, in view of the relatively high number of women among Turkish workers in Germany (4) compared with the number of women paid employees in Turkey in 1965 (5) it seems that financial considerations can overcome moral drawbacks where the rewards are seen to be great enough. However, the suspicion with which men regard male-female relationships outside marriage indicates the persistence of their belief that women's sexuality is dangerous and must be carefully controlled. (6) It has been suggested that male attitudes stressing female weakness, dependence and vulnerability stem from men's fear of their own inner impulse, (7) but whether or not this is the case it is evident that the notion of the disruptive power of female sexuality is still given credence.
The somewhat contrary notion that it is the duty of a wife to satisfy her husband's sexual desires is also widely accepted. In a research carried out in 1969-1970 Paul Magnarella investigated attitudes in response to a newspaper report concerning a 42 year-old mother of six who had found a younger wife for her husband because she herself could no longer engage in sexual union with him. The responses fell into two popular categories: those who thought she had done the right thing, or that she should have left him--so that he could marry again legally; and those who thought that a man whose wife had given him several children and many years of sexual companionship had no right to divorce and to be disputed by a second wife. (8)
While traditional attitudes are bound to die hard, the spread of industrialisation with concomitant urbanisation, and continuing economic problems in the country, as well as changing ideological and political currents of thought are all combining to push more and more women into contact with men in all spheres of life. It is inevitable, in these circumstances, that strict rules concerning female chastity and extra-marital male-female relationships are becoming more and more difficult to enforce, especially in urban areas. Furthermore, as society becomes more and more fragmented, and the conjugal unit becomes isolated from the patriarchal extended family it may be easier for the guilty party of an illicit relationship, and more convenient for the partner who has been 'wronged' to 'cover up' incidents of aberrant behaviour. Certainly in the light of the above discussion one could expect to find a wide divergence in the implications of female sexuality and in the degree of adherence to the code of honour between rural and urban communities by this stage in the process of the industrialisation of Turkey and her integration into world capitalism.
Women in Literary Works
Orhan Asena's play Yalan(1962) deals with the deceit which characterises an urban family in which the male as 'head' of the family is too weak even to admit about the knowledge of his wife's unfaithfulness. Vicdan, their daughter who commits suicide, bitterly condemns both her parents. She accuses her mother of succumbing to her sexual desires:
Pushing you into the arms of that man was the masculine strength which you couldn't find in my father's aging arms. (p. 30) and You couldn't do any longer without that breath of masculine power which made you feel your feminine sexuality from head to toe. (p.36)
She condemns her mother for not being honest enough to admit to her weakness and blames her father for conniving with her mother to keep the affair secret. In fact, the play shows how the father actually followed his wife to her rendezvous and caught her with her lover but could not bring himself to blame her, since he himself had been unable to fulfil his role as a husband for many years past. The disappointment of Vicdan in her father's spineless behaviour is an important factor in her committing suicide. The author's view appears to be that although it is to be expected that a woman will seek satisfaction of her sexual desires outside marriage if she cannot do so within it, extra-marital relations for women are nevertheless not to be condoned as the happiness of the whole family is put at risk, even if the husband himself turns a blind eye. It is therefore the husband's failure to fulfil his marital duty of fulfilling his wife's sexual needs which lies at the root of the problem.
Fakir Baykurt's novel has a rural setting for a very interesting example of an adulterous relationship, which is initiated by the mother of the man involved as a means to a secret personal revenge against the woman's husband. This case of adultery in Yilanlarin Ocu (1959) quite clearly reflects more upon the honour of the husband...
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