Fatma Aliye: At the Intersection of Secular and Islamic Feminism

Abstract

This paper analyzes the figure of the Ottoman writer Fatma Aliye (1862-1936) and her apparent contradictory position as both proto-feminist and conservative religious advocate. Conflicting evaluations have been given by critics of Fatma Aliye’s novels and of her personal position as defender of both woman’s agency and of the traditional precepts of Islam. This paper intends to contextualize her thought in the specific circumstances of her lifetime and show that Modern Turkey’s polarization between secularism and Islamism was not present in her time but were interconnected and blended. Fatma Aliye, as a daughter of her time, shares both elements and in so doing destabilizes many certainties and opens new avenues to the inclusion of feminism, secularism and Islamism as non-divisive elements of Turkish national identity.