First Woman on Banknote 'snub' to Secular Turkey

Turkey's central bank has been criticized by secularists for choosing a previously obscure Ottoman writer as the first woman to adorn the country's bank notes.

Critics say the choice of Fatma Aliye, believed to be Turkey's first female novelist, represents a surrender to religious conservative forces and a snub to others who fought for women's rights.

Aliye, who died in 1936 and was the daughter of a senior Ottoman bureaucrat and historian, is among several historical figures who will appear on the notes from January. The notes are being minted to mark the inauguration of a fresh currency to replace the existing New Turkish Lira.

A central bank-appointed committee also chose a mathematician, a composer, an architect and a 13th-century Sufi mystic in a departure from the established practice of notes carrying political figures.

But the committee has been accused of bowing to pressure from the ruling Islamist-leaning Justice and Development party (AKP) in choosing Aliye and overlooking Halide Edip Adivar, a writer and feminist icon who fought beside Atatürk.

Mustafa Ozyürek, an MP for the secularist Republican People's party, described Aliye as a "dubious personality" of whom most Turks had never heard. "Working within the tight criteria of finding types to please the AKP is a tough challenge; 90% of people in the street do not know the figures they have chosen," he said.

Aliye, born in 1862, will appear on the new 50-lira note. Despite the conservative mores of her era she will be shown without the Islamic headscarf, which is now seen as a divisive political symbol in Turkey.

Aliye became the first woman in the Ottoman empire to publish a novel when her work, Muhazarat (Useful Information), appeared in 1892. She had previously published under a pseudonym and translated a book from French under the name, "a lady", because being a novelist was then considered an unsuitable profession for women. Aliye campaigned for female education, but emphasized women's contribution to civilization through motherhood and traditional family roles.

Supporters such as Kader, a group campaigning for increased female representation in politics, have hailed her as a crusading early feminist who fought for women's rights years before Atatürk.

"It is important that it teaches that women's struggle for their rights did not start after the founding of the (modern) republic," Hülya Gülbahar, of Kader, told the Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman.

But Bedri Baykam, an artist and member of the pro-Atatürk Kemalist Thought Association, said it was part of an AKP-driven hidden agenda. "I have no problem using historical figures on bank notes but I don't trust the motives," he told the Guardian. "They will infiltrate through the currency names or images that at first look harmless but the next step will be to introduce gradually more conservative figures until you get people who negate the values of the republic."