How does gender challenge the history of the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the nation-states of South-East Europe and Turkey? Specialists in Turkish, Balkan and Ottoman studies respond to this question in this issue of Clio. FGH. Beginning with Istanbul, the contributors open perspectives on such settings as Smyrna, Athens, Tirana, Sofia, and Sarajevo. Readers discover women in harems, feminist movements, a range of women writers and artists, the itineraries of midwives and nurses that bring to life a kaleidoscope of languages, religions and societies. This exploration also reveals common features that connect regions across geographic borders as well as historical continuities that question chronological divisions. The deliberate distancing from a nationalist perspective on this troubled past brings out the complex relationship between changes in political regimes and the transformation of gender regimes. 

EDITORIAL 

Fabio GIOMI & Ece ZERMAN 

[Translated by Siân REYNOLDS] 

The (post-)Ottoman world seen from the perspective of gender 

DOSSIER 

Edhem ELDEM 

[Translated by Marian ROTHSTEIN] 

The harem as seen by Prince Salahaddin Efendi (1861-1915). Searching for women in male-authored documentation 

Gizem TONGO 

Eleni Iliadis (1895-1975). An Ottoman Greek woman painter in end-of-Empire Istanbul 

Haris EXERTZOGLOU 

The “Woman Question” in the Greek (post-)Ottoman transition period 

Sara BERNASCONI 

[Translated by Rosemary RODWELL] 

Fragile intermediaries. Midwives in Bosnia under Austro-Hungarian rule (1878-1918)

Evguenia DAVIDOVA 

Nursing the newborn nation-state: the changing circumstances of the nursing profession in Bulgaria (1878-1941) 

Nevila PAHUMI 

“Which feminism will be ours?” The women’s movement in post-Ottoman Albania 

CURRENT RESEARCH 

Fabio GIOMI & Ece ZERMAN 

[Translated by Anne STEVENS] 

Women, gender and the body in South-East Europe and Turkey (mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century) 

INTERVIEW 

Krassimira DASKALOVA 

Women’s and gender history in the Balkans: looking back over 50 years of teaching and research