Where did Atatürk first express his idea of freedom for women?

Mustafa Kemal was receiving treatment for his kidneys. That is why he was at the Karlsbad thermal springs.

On the evening of July 3, 1918, he hosted a dinner for a large group of guests who had come from Istanbul. Among them were journalist Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın and Seniha Hanım, the wife of Cemal Pasha. There were other women at the dinner as well. The topic of conversation was; 'the freedom of Turkish women.' Everyone spoke and expressed their opinion. When Mustafa Kemal Pasha took the floor, he said;

-“Our women must be educated; their freedom should be granted after they possess a solid culture and a solid understanding,” he said.

The women present there said;

-“It is very difficult for this to happen in our society,” they said.

It seems simple to us today, but,

Back then, even the most enlightened women of the Ottoman Empire saw it as very difficult to achieve. They said things like, “First, the veil should be removed, then the chador, and then the hem of the chador should be shortened a little.” Perhaps that way, women's attire could be modernized, and women could be freed from the black veil. Mustafa Kemal Pasha objected to this idea. Putting himself in the women's shoes, he spoke openly;

-“Am I not a human being?” he said. ”Is it not my right to live freely, to live like civilized people? Am I to wait for the pleasure of a bunch of backward-minded people for this? Of course not! The day I come to power, I will solve this in one fell swoop,” he said.

A lot could be understood from these words of Mustafa Kemal. He was a brigadier general and was talking about coming to power one day. It was 1918, and he had not yet set foot in Samsun. He would come to power and grant women their freedom, which is a human right. The dinner that day ended with these words.

It was getting late.

He left after the dinner. It was raining lightly outside. He returned to the hotel. He went to his room at 10:30 PM. He wrote the topics they discussed in his diary.

He read a book until 11:00 PM and went to bed. The book he was reading was in French; 'Revolte'. 'Revolte' meant rebellion. Before going to bed, he drank a glass of Telsenquelle water. The porter had brought it for him to drink. He lay down in bed. But he could not sleep. He tossed and turned, it didn't work, he got up and continued reading the book.

Atatürk had previously expressed his idea of freedom for women to his lover Dimitriana Kovacheva in Sofia in 1914, and to Chief of Staff İzzettin Çalışlar at the military camp established south of Siirt/Duhan in 1916, but he expressed it for the first time to an open group or journalists in Karlsbad, at that dinner.

For the first time.

On July 3, 1918.

We all know the life of Atatürk.

Afterward, he fought a war in Turkey, won it, came to power as he said he would, and on December 5, 1934, he restored the right to vote and be elected to Turkish women.

However, the situation is different today.

The pressure on women by reactionaries and reactionary governments is increasing.

Human rights and women's rights are being sought to be taken away from them. Women are being sought to be made slaves just like a hundred years ago.

Atatürk did his duty.

Atatürk, who had read more than 4 thousand books in his life, knew 6 foreign languages, and was an Academy graduate, certainly could not wait for the pleasure of the simple-minded, the bigots, and the reactionaries for the modernization of women.

And he did not wait.

Women, you should not wait either.

Resist this oppressive regime just as they did a hundred years ago.