Müfide İlhan (19 February 1911 – 2 February 1996) was a mayor of

Mersin Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and district governorates: Akdeniz, Mezitl ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

in the early 1950s. She is known as being the first woman mayor in

Early life

Müfide İlhan was born on 19 February 1911 in İstanbul.Kudret Ünal:''Müfide İlhan'', Tarsus Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, Tarsus, 2013 ,p.11 Her father was Mustafa Nazif, an army officer and her mother was Emine, a homemaker. She was only four years of age when her father Nafiz fell at Conk Bayırı during the Gallipoli campaign in the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. After the war, she was sent to

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, where she completed her elementary education. After the liberation of İstanbul, she moved to İstanbul and completed her secondary education in the Kandilli High School for Girls. In 1928 she finished teachers' college. After finishing the college she began serving as a teacher in İstanbul.

First marriage

In 1928 she married Nuri Çetinkaya an army officer. She accompanied her husband in various Turkish cities such as Erzurum and Kırklareli. When her husband was appointed as the Turkish

military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

she studied at Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus Institute. However, in 1936 the couple divorced and Müfide returned to Ankara.

Second marriage

In Ankara she met with Doctor Faruk İlhan. But Faruk İlhan had to travel to

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

to establish the Medicine school of

Kabul University Kabul University (KU; prs, دانشگاه کابل, translit= Dāneshgāh-e-Kābul; ps, د کابل پوهنتون, translit=Da Kābul Pohantūn) is one of the major and oldest institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. It is in the 3rd ...

. They married in Kabul. In 1945 towards the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the couple decided to return to Turkey. But because of the war-time hardships and unrest in Karachi, the couple was not able to sail back. So, they returned home by a car over

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, which seemed impossible to many people in 1945. In 1946, they decided to settle in Mersin, Faruk İlhan's home city.

Political life

In Mersin she began to get interested in politics. The Democrat Party (DP) defeated the

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party ( tr, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, , acronymized as CHP ) is a Kemalist and social-democratic political party in Turkey which currently stands as the main opposition party. It is also the oldest political party i ...

(CHP) in 1950 general elections, thus ended 27-years rule of the CHP, which later on was called the 'white revolution'. Müfide İlhan became the mayor of Mersin as the candidate of DP on 3 September 1950 elections, and she created sensation both at home and abroad for being the first ever

female Female ( symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Fema ...

mayor of Turkey, at a time when the participation of

Turkish women in politics Women in Turkey have an active participation in national politics, and the number of women in the Turkish parliament has been increasing steadily in recent elections. Background The Republic of Turkey was founded on the ashes of the Ottoman ...

was still considerably low. She was invited to Great Britain. İlhan, as most reformists of the day, was against the authoritarian administration of pre-1950 CHP government. However she was not against the ideology of CHP, so called

Kemalism Kemalism ( tr, Kemalizm, also archaically ''Kamâlizm''), also known as Atatürkism ( tr, Atatürkçülük, Atatürkçü düşünce), or The Six Arrows ( tr, Altı Ok), is the founding official ideology of the Republic of Turkey.Eric J. Zurche ...

. Thus, some early moves of DP government, which seemed to be against Kemalism, disappointed her. For example, it was difficult for her to accept DP government's lift of the ban on Arabic ezan. It was the CHP government, which initiated ezan in Turkish in 1932 instead of in traditional Arabic. On 17 December 1951, after a year of extensive work, she resigned from her post. After a while she also resigned from the party. She formed a league named 'League for supporting independent candidates' in Mersin. She also published a short lived bulletin named ''Mücadele'' ( en, Struggle). However, after her husband was appointed to İzmit as chief physician she left Mersin in 1955.

Other activities

Between 1968 and 1981 she worked as a teacher in Germany for Turkish immigrants. She worked in a number of social associations. In her later years she donated to hospitals and a retirement home in Mersin.

Personal life

Müfide had seven children; two daughters from the first marriage, one son and three daughters from the second marriage and one adopted son. In 1965, she was elected as the 'mother of the year' by the Turkish Association of Mothers.

Legacy

A neighborhood in

Akdeniz Akdeniz is a municipality and district governorate in Greater Mersin, Turkey. Mersin is one of the 30 Metropolitan centers in Turkey with more than one municipality within city borders. Now in Mersin there are four second-level municipalities i ...

municipality and a public park in Yenişehir municipality are named after her. One of the art galleries of

İçel Sanat Kulübü Art Club of İçel ( tr, İçel Sanat Kulübü) is a nonprofit cultural organization in Mersin, Turkey. İçel is the former name of Mersin Province. Founded in 1989, the club plays an important role in culturel life of Mersin. Activities *Ea ...

(the main art club of Mersin) is also named after her. On 4 April 2015 the municipality of Mersin erected a statue of Müfide İlhan Hürriyet newspaper
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilhan, Mufide Women mayors of places in Turkey Mayors of places in Turkey Mayors of Mersin 1911 births 1996 deaths Turkish schoolteachers Democrat Party (Turkey, 1946–1961) politicians 20th-century Turkish politicians 20th-century Turkish women politicians