January
2007
My letter about Kemal Ataturk(Mustafa Kemal)
Jan. 9 1938
Dear Mary,
I am writing about Kemal Ataturk and his influence on the Turkish people. I have attached a photo of him.
In 1925 Mustafa Kemal (Kemal Ataturk) the all powerful president ( dictator) appeared wearing western clothing and a brimmed hat. He then ordered all Turkish men to stop wearing fezzes, and made a law forbidding wearing them.Many Turks were upset.Turks said if you gave up your fez you gave up being Muslim.New laws also changed the lives of women in Turkey.Before Kemal Ataturk women wore vails to hide their faces,Kemal made a law saying they could no longer be worn. He wanted to modernize the country of Turkey.He also thaught that women should be equal so girls then went to school and women took up jobs in buisness and government.He also gave women the right to vote. I am very grateful of Kemal Ataturk’s decision to make women equal.If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be going to school, and my mom would not be able to work or vote. Did you know that he also moved the capitol from Istanbul to where it is now in Ankara.He even made a new alphabet and it was based on Roman alphabet and European languages. Well I must go to school now.
sincerely your pen pal,
Yonca Zeki (Emilee)
