organized by the Girne Inner Wheel Club together with the artist Halil Öztunç

By Heidi Trautmann

At the opening of the exhibition, the announcement of which raised a lot of interest and excitement, the former President of the Girne Inner Wheel Club, Fatma Özok, spoke about their project to bring to the surface the long line of Cypriot Pioneering Women who have contributed much to their country with their fight for their visions. 

“We went on a cultural and historical journey over three years”, she said.

It was a journey for them through documents, books and talking to people. Books written by research writers, journalists, for example Neriman Cahit, Gülgün Serdar, Fatma Azgin, Ahmet An. There were so many that in the end they had to decide where to start and they made the decision to start with those women born in the 1930s. She said, that they will continue along this line, because they felt the pride for these women and their achievements and they were determined to keep the memory of them alive.

At that moment our artist Halil Öztunç came on board of the project and he started the very difficult job to learn all about these women and bring the information of their personality and achievements onto canvas with colour and collage. 

Fatma Ozok continued saying:
“They were women who had visions and fought at the cost of their lives to realize them, worked for society in the difficult conditions of the past, fought to defend their rights, protected the values of society, they taught us how to be "Us, not Me". We are proud to be their next generation. It is our duty to ensure that their life stories are researched and passed on to the future generations, and to form a bridge between the past and the future. It will also be a meaningful contribution as a social responsibility project, the income from the sale of the works will be donated to the 'Women's Shelter'. As the Girne Inner Wheel Club, which is a branch of the International  Inner Wheel, the largest international women organization, we congratulate and thank our artist Halil Öztunç for his efforts to the importance he gives to our values, and his thoughts in this art event which is regarded as community service.”

After Fatma Ozok, the artist Halil Öztunç himself, spoke about his work to the many guests on the opening evening. Both mayors of Lefkoşa and Girne, Mehmet Harmancı and Nidai Güngördü, had come and spoke to the guests, they are both known as strong supporters of the arts, and both are supporting the idea of local museums for the preservation of culture. 

I was very touched to see and meet some of the ‘Pioneering Women’ whose portraits we could see in the exhibition, portraits of them in their young and active years. With some of them I have led long talks for my two artbooks and interviews which I had published in local newspapers and magazines. They were in their 90s now, still fit and coming forward to the microphone to talk to us. Many others though, have left the garden of life and with love and respect I remember the hours we had spent together talking about the past.

It is a very good step into the right direction and we must thank the artist and the organizing Women’s Group for the work and organisation. Hopefully, this line of ‘Pioneering Women’ will continue and the paintings and knowledge about them will be kept together in a museum.

Perhaps the organisers may think of showing the exhibition in other places of the island, it would be of great educational and cultural value.

In the following list of names, I have given only a short mention of activity, but if you want to learn more about them, most of them are mentioned in the internet; some books are also available in English. Here, I cannot show all 32 portraits but of those I have personally met. 

List of portraits:

Aydin Sennaroğlu (1st Cypriot woman doctor),

Aysel Bağdadi, (singer, known as 'Kücük Aysel')

Dr. Ayten Berkalp (many firsts, chief doctor, undersecretary of health, chairwoman of sportsclub, captain of Fenerbahce volleyball team in Turkey, sportswoman of the year),

Bedia Remsi Okan (first owner of newspaper and women journalist),

Cemiye Imre, (first teacher in hairdressing),

Fevziye Hulusi (one of the first female Radio speakers and sportswoman),

Gülten Feridun, President of the Cyprus Turkish Women’s Union),

Güner Necat  (Founder of Scouts Association),

Gülbahar Göckün, (a dedicated history teacher),

Hatice Necati  (first teacher to start physical education),

Havva Ramadan Cemil first woman career diplomat),

Inci Kansu  (artist, co-founder of Cyprus paper art association),

Jale Derviş (first woman composer, dedicated music teacher, mother of Arman Ratip),

Kadriye Hacibulgur (first woman politician),

Kamran Aziz (many firsts, first woman composer),

Latife Birgen (first doctor in nuclear medcine,

Melahat Hacibulgur (Head of Blood Bank),

Mevhive Şefik (first female art teacher, in radio plays),

Neriman Cahit (research writer, poet, teacher),

Özel Vassif, (first Turkish Cypriot female tennis player),

Pembe Marmara (first woman poet),

Peyker Teyfik, (one of the first teachers and directors),

Selma Fehim, (Doctor Children Hospital),

Servet Sami Dedeçay, (first presidential candidate, founder of first university),

Süheyla Küçük(Our first First Lady),

Şermin Kotak, (teacher, developing education),

Şule Örfi Süha, (Radio and television programmer and presenter, supporting women in social and business life),

Ten Feizi, (Molecular biologist)

Türkan Aziz (first cypriot senior Matron),

Ulviye Mithat, (newspaper woman)

Urkiye Mine Balman (first woman poet, with first book published)

Vedia Barut (first woman on stage at the age of 12 (1931)