Cetin on Turkey's First Woman Lawyer

Sevgi Çetin has posted Trailblazers III: Süreyya Agaoglu the First Woman Lawyer of Turkey:

In 1927, Süreyya Agaoglu became the first woman lawyer of Turkey. She had to force the doors of the Law School of the ancient Ottoman Empire. Because in its religious and tradition-based court system and laws, there was no place for a woman lawyer. According to the Mecelle, (the Ottoman civil and procedural code) ''In civil cases, evidence is only valid when given by two males, or one male and two females, but in places where males cannot be possessed of the necessary information, the evidence of females alone will be accepted in respect of the property.'' In a legal system, women were not excepted as witnesses, it would be impossible to give them the authority of a lawyer. While she was a student at the university, the old Ottoman Empire with its laws and institutions withdrawn from the stage of history. The young Republic of Turkey opened the doors of the legal profession to women. Agaoglu and her friends led the way, and today women consist the half of lawyers

--Dan Ernst