A signed manuscript draft for an article on female emancipation in Türkiye, written by the country’s first professional nurse.
Elbi’s (1882-1964) grandfather served as a cavalryman aboard the ship that took Florence Nightingale to Crimea during the Crimean War, so she grew up “always listening to Nightingale’s life and stories. We even had her picture in our house. I’d look at her photo and dream of becoming a woman like her” (interview, 1954, transcribed by the Istanbul Gelisim University). After the outbreak of the Balkan War, English-speaking nurses were in high demand. Elbi and her younger sister, Nesime, were among the first applicants when the Hilal-i Ahmer Society called for women from Istanbul to look after the wounded. “Then I forgot my house, my children, and focused on the patients” (ibid.).
During the First World War, Elbi volunteered as head nurse on the Reşit Paşa Hospital Ship, the only Turkish nurse to do so. Afterwards, she inspected the conditions of Turkish prisoners abroad, established and served on the boards of various medical associations, and was also the first woman in the country to teach college-level medicine to girls. A popular public figure, Elbi was recognized many times over for her achievements. In November 1921 she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the first Turkish woman to receive the honour.
Elbi was also among early Republican Türkiye’s foremost public advocates for women’s rights. The present manuscript, written in Elbi’s distinctive hand, describes the “many phases” of women’s rights in Türkiye, touching on marriage, divorce, the çarşaf, and inheritance. She praises Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, “who [with his discouragement of headscarf use in public] unveiled the Turkish woman & gave her equal opportunities of liberty & equality with men”. Elbi recalls meeting the Turkish president “on board his yacht & I wore my hat for the first time; but I must admit that many of us who were unveiled & wearing hats felt somewhat uncomfortable when veiled women looked down upon us with hatred”. This event was covered by the press.
Elbi closes on both a positive and a negative, happy that newly gained freedoms mean better career opportunities for women, but sad that, despite demand, her Turkish contemporaries “do not seem to realize the importance of that humane endeavour to nurse the sick. Turkish girls love to imitate American & European girls in their freedom, but [are] unfortunately somewhat slow in appreciating the high ideals of philanthropic duties to humanity”.