Hatı Çırpan (formerly Satı Kadın, 1890 – March 21, 1956) was a
Turkish politician, one of the first
female members of the parliament in the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...
, elected in the
1935 general elections.
Life
She was born in the village of
Kahramankazan in 1890. Her father and mother were Kara Mehmet Efendi and Emine Hanım. She was the wife of a soldier who was wounded in the throat during the Balkan War.
She was the mother of five children. She worked as a farmer and village headman after her father. On October 26, 1933, after women were given the right to be mukhtars, she won the elections for the village headman of Kazan and became one of the first female mukhtars in Turkey.
Just before the Second Language Congress (''İkinci Türk Dil Kurultayı'', 18–23 August 1934), on July 16, 1934, President
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...
left
Ankara
Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
for an excursion to the village of
Kazan
Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...
(at the time part of
Kızılcahamam
Kızılcahamam is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Ankara Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,623 km2, and its population is 26,872 (2022). It is 70 km north of the city of Ankara, near the motorway to Istanbul. Its elevati ...
district of
Ankara Province
Ankara Province (, ) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey with the capital city Ankara. Its area is 25,632 km2, and its population is 5,782,285 (2022).
History
The site of the modern city has been home to settlements ...
),
[A. Afetinan, ''Tarih'ten bugün'e'', Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1970, p. 164. ][A. Afetinan, ''Cumhuriyetʼin Ellinci yılı için Köylerimiz'', Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1978, p. 8. ] away from the capital Ankara.
[Emin Karakuş, ''40 yıllık bir gazeteci gözü ile İşte Ankara'', Hür Yayın ve Ticaret, 1977, p. 22. ] During this excursion, Atatürk was introduced to Satı Kadın, who was the
village chief of Kazan. She was a peasant from Central Anatolia who had fought for four years during the
Turkish War of Independence
, strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...
.
[''The Turkish Woman (1919-1923)'', Basın Yayın Genel Müdürlüğü, p. 36.] The two engaged in conversation, after which Atatürk was reported to have taken a liking to Satı Kadın's achievements and intelligence.
According to
Afet İnan, Atatürk said after meeting her, "This is an exceptional woman who can thrive as a member of the parliament."
[''İşte mebus olacak kadın.'', A. Afetinan, ''Kemal Atatürk'ü Anarken'', Güzel Sanatlar Matbaası, 1956, p. 67. ] Satı Kadın was sponsored and supported in her successful campaign for office by Atatürk himself.
Later, she changed her first name to Hatı at the advice of Atatürk, who was interested in the civilization of the
Hattians
The Hattians () were an ancient Bronze Age people that inhabited the land of ''Hatti'', in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). They spoke a distinctive Hattian language, which was neither Semitic languages, Semitic nor Indo-European languages, In ...
at the time, and because her former name Satı meant "sale" or "purchase" in
Turkish.
She adopted the surname of Çırpan after the 1934
Surname Law
The Surname Law () of the Republic of Turkey is a law adopted on 21 June 1934, requiring all citizens of Turkey to adopt the use of fixed, hereditary surnames. Prior to 1934, Turkish families in the major urban centres had names by which they were ...
required all Turkish citizens to have a surname.
Satı Kadın returned to Kahramankazan after completing her parliamentary duty. She died on March 21, 1956.
There is a mausoleum in Kahramankazan and her house has been restored and turned into a museum.
File:First female MPs of the Turkish Parliament (1935).jpg, Eighteen female MPs joined the Grand National Assembly of Turkey
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...
in 1935.
File:Sati Kadin at the rostrum of TBMM.jpg, Hatı Çırpan at the rostrum of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
See also
*
Women in Turkish politics
Sources
1890 births
1956 deaths
Politicians from Ankara
People from Angora vilayet
Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians
Deputies of Ankara
20th-century Turkish women politicians
Women's suffrage in Turkey
20th-century women farmers
20th-century farmers
{{Turkey-politician-stub