I Bet You did not Know | 49

Mavi Boncuk |

I Bet You did not Know that Belkıs Şevket Hanım, the chairwoman of "Müdâfa-i Hukuk –i Nisvân Cemiyeti" the National Defence League of Women, an association of Women’s Rights [1] became the first Ottoman Turkish and Muslim woman to fly Deperdussin, a military aircraft piloted by Fethi Bey on 30 November 1913.

(below Belkıs Şevket Hanım after the flight)

Şehbal Dergisi: “Bir Türk hanımının ilk hadise-i teyyerânına dâir irtisamlar: Müdâfa-i Hukuk –i Nisvân Cemiyeti Erkânından bazıları Ayastefanos’ta Tayyare Mektebi civarında. Şehbal magazine photo: National Defence League of Women near the Ayastefanos Airdrome. Belkıs Şevket Hanım seated front far right.

[1] During the same year the League managed to get one member, Bedriye Osman Hanım as the first female employee of the phone company.