Turkish Heroin Black Fatma

From the 19th century Turkish women, struggling for their homeland, were all called Kara Fatma. Among the foremost qualities of ideal Turkish woman, created with the influence of the idea of nationalism, were to make any sacrifice and be ready to fight for her country. During the Balkan Wars and WWI Turkish woman undertook significant roles. In the period of the National Movement, Kara Fatma was the common name of the women that fought to protect their homeland. However, when someone mention about the National Movement and also Kara Fatma, Fatma Seher Hanım is the first that comes to mind. In spite of the various views about her life, “She is the most powerful Kara Fatma in the Anatolia” she claimed. (In her own words “The most powerful Kara Fatma in Anatolia” was herself) At the National Movement she served as a volunteer militia, and then after the Great Attack, retired from the army as a Lieutenant. She conributed to the salvation of so many regions like from Bolu to İzmit, and Afyon to Bursa. She even donated her salary to Red Crescent, lived her last ages in poverty. Kara Fatma, essentially within the period of the Constitutional Monarcy, became one of the notable representatives of Turkish woman model, had been tried to put forward during and after the war. She was not only the woman that scared the enemies and ready for any sacrifice to her country, but also a model of a good wife and a caressing mother to her family. That is the point of view the example of post-rebuplican female model is influenced from.

Keywords

Black Fatma, Independence war, İzmit, Fatma Seher, Woman movement