Modern Women in a Modern State Public Discourse in Interwar Yugoslavia on the Status of Women in Turkey (1923-1939)

After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, Turkish women gained numerous political, social, and educational rights. Their rapidly improving status was a frequent topic in the public discourse of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (SHS)/Yugoslavia during the interwar years. One can find numerous comments in Yugoslav newspapers and journal articles, monographs, diaries, travel accounts, and other texts of the period on the contrast between the status of women in the "traditional," "conservative," theocratic Ottoman Empire and the status of women in the "modern," "liberal," secular Republic of Turkey. The Yugoslav media compared the status of Turkish women with the position of women's rights in Yugoslavia. Through the analysis of interwar Yugoslav public discourse on the status of women in contemporary Turkey, this article aims to reveal the Yugoslav public's perception of women's issues through the prism of Turkey as Europe's "Other" and their self-perception.