Conservative Manifestations of Women in Turkey: Deliberations on the Case of Samiha Ayverdi

Conservatism has enjoyed a consistently high position on the current agenda as an important part of daily life, appearing in the form of an ideology or a way of thinking. Conservatism, through its unbreakable bond with the past and its ways of articulating with other ideologies, brings to the fore varied forms of conservatism differing in line with geographical origins and environmental conditions. The gist of conservative thinking considers the past to maintain its presence today on one hand and to bear the torch for the future on the other. The present study focuses on Samiha Ayverdi, one of the pioneers of conservative thinking in Turkey. Ayverdi depicts a critical approach to daily life on the line between modernisation and conservatism and focuses on the transformations brought along by westernisation during the process of modernisation engulfing Turkey at the time. Ayverdi takes ownership of the past and takes only wary steps towards the novelties produced by the process of westernisation, as dictated by the delimitation of conservatism. Ayverdi’s perspective erodes the image of the Muslim women. In comparison between Turkey and the Ottoman Empire, Ayverdi opts for the latter as a structure dominated by a conservative identity for women.