The ideals of a “New Woman” with an élite education through her first-person narrative

The personal writings of Semiha Sureya, a young woman who keeps her memoires in Ottoman, modern Turkish and English, show her ideals in life as a patriotic and enlightened “New Woman”. She is of a well-rooted traditional Ottoman family; and at the same time, she is well suited to the modernist project of the new regime as a student of the American Collegiate Institute of Izmir. Although she has the means and the capacity to have a career, she chooses to become a homemaker in her life. She will raise her children and work for charity as well as translating books from French and English, which will be published in local İzmir newspapers, however, her notebooks full of her personal writings have never been published. This private collection, which gives voice to Semiha Moralı, has been made available by her daughter for this article. Semiha Moralı’s dedication to her marriage and children, which from one perspective seems to be an impediment, empowers her from a different point of view.