The Silence of the Girls

My grandmother, who was my best friend and worst judge until I was a teenager, was a Girls' Institute student. Although her father took her from there and married her off before she finished school, she always considered the ideals of these schools as the ideals of her life. She didn't talk much about these years, but when she did, she talked with pleasure about sewing dresses and displaying them, and about her teachers. He continued to make dresses throughout his life - for us, just for his family. The meals he cooked were always excellent, the order of his house was absolute, and his celibacy after the early death of his wife was uncompromising. He was a determined person, his decisions were final. But despite this certainty, despite being quite educated for his time, and perhaps most importantly, despite his obvious desire to do so, he did not pursue a profession. His slightly bitter silence brought all these features together and surrounded him with a veil of mystery. However, he was an open person.
Girls' Institutes, whose roots date back to the Girls' Industrial Schools in the Ottoman period, were an important pillar of the modernization project of the Republic of Turkey. These institutions were an important example of the Republic's understanding and implementation of modernization. They were also evidence of the continuity of this style with the understanding and practice of the last period of the Ottoman Empire. In addition, they showed how Turkish modernization constructed the place and situation of girls/women in modern life. In her impressive work, Elif Ekin Aksit examines the story of the Girls' Institutes without reducing them to the ultimate failure of Turkish modernization in general and these institutions in particular. He looks at how the institute girls experience this education and upbringing process and listens to the remaining silence of these Republic girls!



Number of Pages: 240

Year of Printing: 2005


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Iletisim Publishing

Number of Pages: 240

First Print Year: 2006

Language Turkish