Turkey offers Adıvar to UNESCO for 2014

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Halide Edip Adıvar is Turkey’s first female name offered to UNESCO.

The Turkish National Commission for UNESCO has decided to propose 2014 be celebrated as the year of writer, politician and academic Halide Edip Adıvar. The commission has reportedly already sent the proposal to UNESCO’s secretary.

The commission decided to make the proposal in hopes of commemorating the 50-year anniversary of Adıvar’s death in a very special way. This is the first time that Turkey has offered a woman’s name to UNESCO.

Adıvar was a Turkish novelist and feminist political leader. Many of her novels criticized the low social status Turkish women find themselves trapped in and what she saw as a lack of interest in most women for changing their situation.

Apart from Adıvar, Matrakçı Nasuh’s commemoration for the 450-year anniversary of his death, Gaspıralı İsmail’s 100th death anniversary and Turkish Islamic Artworks Museum’s 200th year were also suggested to the commission.