Neighbors

Time passes very quickly. Perhaps this is my own assumption because 92 years have passed since my birth in Istanbul.

I feel grateful to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. Atatürk actualized many reforms for the benefit of Turkey and the women: Men and women had equal rights before the law; the women got the right to vote before the Europeans.

The leadership of Atatürk was accepted by the people. He was not a monarch. He was always in touch with the people and lived in a simple but dignified building in Çankaya, Ankara. He spent his life with qualified friends who joined him to actualize the reforms. A new education system with the Turkish alphabet and modern schools where girls and boys together in the same class easily learned to read and write was established. Young women could choose their profession and begin to work in official positions. Women were always important. As mothers they were the roots of new generations who had an important role in the progress of Turkey. Many factories in every part of the country also showed that we were on the right road.

At those times people were in good terms with each other. There was strong friendship. Neighbors were like members of the same family. These past days are not a dream; we have lived through them.

Now we are in the twenty first century. Instead of getting better we have lost many of our good qualities. Our neighbors and friends have left Turkey to live in other countries. (We still miss them.)

Nowadays, selfishness is more important than good behavior. Humanity is forgotten and ambitions come before everything else. And bad habits, swindling theft, and cheating are very much on the go. But wars, terrorism, crimes, and hatred for women frighten me more than anything else. Maybe I am alone on this subject. Perhaps this condition should not concern me very much as an old and blind woman, but sometimes I feel that having gone through many joyful and happy events during my youth, I am unfair towards the unhappy victims of crime of every age and gender. I hope that events of this kind which people experience every day will end soon and that life will become a means of happiness again.

Ms. Nihal Erem