Kadın 1908–1909 : Selanik'te Yayınlanan İlk Kadın Dergisi Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Osmanlı’da kadınların kendilerini ifade etmeleri, tanıtmaları, eylem ve taleplerini duyurmalarıilk kez basın aracılığıyla gerçekleşmiştir. Basında kadınlara ait imzalara, dönem gazetelerinde, bazıgazetelerin çıkardıklarıkadına dair sayfa ve eklerde, özellikle de kadın dergilerinde rastlamak mümkündür. Türkiye’de kadın dergiciliği alanındaki ilk girişimler, Tanzimat Dönemi’nde gerçekleşmiştir. Kadın dergileri, Tanzimat’la başlayan modernleşme ve yenileşme sürecinde, “kadın” konusunda yaşanan sosyal ve kültürel gelişmelerin bir sonucudur. Bu dergiler, her kesimden kadının yazma konusundaki çekimserliğini gidermede, taleplerini duyurmada önemli işlev görmüştür. II. Meşrutiyet döneminde kadın dergilerindeki artış; II. Meşrutiyet’le gelen ve İmparatorluğun birçok bölgesinde çok sayıda gazete-derginin yayın hayatına atılmasınısonuçlandıran özgürlük ortamının yanında, II. Meşrutiyet’in, kadın konusunda tartışmaların arttığı, kadının ilerlemesi, toplumsal yaşama daha aktif olarak katılmasıdüşüncesi etrafında gerçekleşen örgütlenmelere dair önemli deneyimlerin elde edildiği bir dönem olmasından kaynaklanmaktadır. Bu çalışma, II. Meşrutiyet’in ilânınımüteakip ilk aylarda yayınlanan kadın dergilerinden biri olan Kadın’ıkonu edinmektedir. Selanik menşe’li dergi aynızamanda bu kentte yayınlanan ilk kadın dergisidir. İdari kadrosu ve yazıkurulu önemli isimlerden oluşan dergi, yayın hayatıboyunca, İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti ve yardım dernekleri ile yakın ilişki içinde olmuştur. Kadınların eğitimi, toplumsal yaşama katılması, örgütlenmesi derginin önem verdiği konuların başında gelir. Niteliksel tarihsel tasarım karakterini taşıyan çalışma, derginin yayın politikasınıve Türkiye’de kadın dergiciliği tarihindeki yerini değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır.

In late Ottoman society, the self-expression of women, publicizing themselves and their actions and demands was first established through the press. First signatures of women appeared on newspapers of the era, and on pages and additional sections published for women by some newspapers. First undertakings in the field of women’s magazines in Turkey were seen during the Tanzimat Reformation era. Women’s magazines appeared as a result of the social-cultural developments instigated by modernization and reformation of the Tanzimat era. These magazines fulfilled important functions at removing the shyness of women of all segments for writing and getting vocal. According the Commission for Bibliography of the Library for Works of Women, Istanbul Libraries offer 38 women’s magazines in Turkish published between the years 1869-1927: Aile, Âlem-i Nisvan, Âsâr-ı Nisvan, Âyine, Bilgi Yurdu Işığı, Çalıkuşu, Demet, Diyane, Erkekler Dünyası, Ev Hocası, Firuze, Genç Kadın, Hanım, Hanımlar, Hanımlar Âlemi, Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete, Hanımlara Mahsus Malumat, İnci/Yeni İnci, İnsaniyet, Kadın İstanbul , Kadın Selanik , Kadınlar Âlemi, Kadınlar Dünyası, Kadınlık/Kadın Duygusu, Kadınlık Hayatı, Kadın Yolu/Türk Kadın Yolu, Mehasin, Musavver Kadın, Mürüvvet, Parça Bohçası, Seyyale, Siyanet, Süs, Şükûfezar, Terakki, Türk Kadını, Vakit Yahud Mürebbi-i Muhadderat. In respect of press history, the first magazine for women, the Terakki-i Muhadderat, a weekly complement under the subhead “a newspaper for women” to the daily Terakki in 1869, was issued 48 weeks. The Terakki-i Muhadderat included articles that made comparisons with contemporary Europe, concluding critics on the status of women in Ottoman society. The weekly gave also information on feminist movements in the west. The magazines Vakit Yahud Mürebbi-i Muhadderat 1875 describing itself as “reporting on useful things about womanhood”; the Ayine, a weekly magazine published in the same period included children to the readership in addition to women; the Aile 1880 as a “magazine with focus on various issues related to the family, that is, to women, children and housework”; the İnsaniyet 1883 with the mission to enlighten the women; Hanımlar 1883 with more signatures of women writers; the woman-owned Şükûfezar 1886 with the entire writing staff consisting of women; the Mürüvvet 1888 the first with categorized content; Parça Bohçası 1889 , the most long-lived Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete , the Hanımlara Mahsus Malumat as a complement to the magazine Malumat 1895 , the Âlem-i Nisvân published in 1906 in the Crimea by İsmail Gasprensky as a complement to the Tercüman, all were magazines for women which were published mainly before the II. Meşrutiyet -the constitutional monarchy reform- during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II. The declaration of the 2nd Constitution marked new formations in political, social, and economical culture and important firsts in politics. It indicates also a time when –with the gaining of new rights- debates about the traditional role of the woman gained momentum. From this time on, the woman issue has been debated intensely by various intellectuals according their adopted movement of thought. The İttihad ve Terakki party also showed a particular interest towards women’s issues; with the aim to facilitate the participation of women into social life and to give women a direction compliant to the party ideology, they opened girl schools named after the party. All these developments certainly increased the number of women’s magazines. This increase arose, besides from the liberty environment of the era which resulted in a blossoming of newspapers in all regions of the empire, and also an era of discussions and organizations on issues related with women, with the progression and involvement of women in society. Demet, Mehasin and Kadın were published in the first months following the proclamation of the 2nd Constitution. The focus of the topics in the Demet consisted the education of women, child care, cultivation of women, facial care and fashion. Another feature of the magazine were political articles that actually attracted interest. The Mehasin was published 12 issues between September 1908-November 1909 as the first colored and illustrated women’s magazine. The writing staff of Demet showed up in the Mehasin too. Women of various nations, activities by women, fashion, literature, the arts, and actual events were topics of coverage. Apart from these, a great number of short lived women’s magazines were published beginning by the 2nd Constitution up to the Republic. Although bibliographical Works about these have been conducted, detailed studies are limited. These studies to be conducted particularly by communication scolars will be an important contribution on the history of popular culture in Turkey. However, the problem of translation at foremost, many causes prevent scholars to show the required interest to the field. This is valid for other magazines like sports magazines, humor magazines, etc. too. Our study is about the magazine Kadın woman which is one of the women’s magazines that started in the months after the proclamation of the 2nd Constitution, as also the first woman magazine published in Saloniki. Saloniki was of a determining importance on the process beginning with the formation of the Ittihad ve Terakki and resulting in the 2nd Constitution. As with the other publications in Saloniki, the magazine was the product of the commercial and historical/social conditions of the city. With many important names in the managerial and writing staff, the magazine maintained throughout it’s life cycle a close relationship with the Ittihad ve Terakki and the charity organizations related with the party. It’s manager Enis Avni volunteered in the Movement Army that occupied the capital in the event of March 31 named by revolutionaries as the “honorable event”. Education of the woman, involvement in social life, organization of women are topics of focus in the magazine. These features put it in an important position among women’s magazines of the constitutional era and hence make it an important source for studies on the developmental history of the women’s movement and popular culture in the Ottoman society. However, it is hard to say that this witness has been heared adequately. All what is known about the magazine is limited to bibliographical mentions and short citations in studies related to the field. Despite of it’s importance, the study by Yıldız Akpolat has some limitations. By presenting original and detailed information about the magazine, the study aims to evaluate the editorial policies of the Kadın and it’s place in the history of Turkish women’s magazines and to make a scholary contribution to the field and also calling attention to the need of similar studies