Who is Safiye Ali?

Safina, the first woman medical doctor in the Republic of Turkey, Ali was Doodle on Google. Safiye Ali, the first woman to teach medicine in our country, was remembered by Google on her 127th birthday. In addition to her professional work throughout her life, Safiye Ali participated in the feminist movement that started in Istanbul and fought for the right of Turkish women to be elected.

Who is Safiye Ali?

Safiye Ali (born February 2, 1894, Istanbul - Date of death July 5, 1952, Dortmund), Turkish doctor. Republic of Turkey's first woman and first female medical doctor giving medical education. The name of Safiye Ali, who works on mother and child health, is known with the Milk Drops Nursing Home.

In addition to her professional work, she participated in the feminist movement that started in Istanbul and fought for the right of Turkish women to be elected.

He was born in Istanbul in 1894. His father Sultan Abdulaziz and II. Ali Kırat Pasha, one of Abdülhamid's aides, is Emine Hasene Hanım, daughter of Şeyhülharem Hacı Emin Pasha. Safiye Ali was the youngest of four sisters.

His family was known for his various services during the Ottoman Empire. His grandfather Hacı Emin Pasha was the sheikh of Mecca for 17 years and has still established five active foundations. Safiye Ali, who lost her father at a young age, grew up in the mansion of her grandfather Emin Pasha in Valideçeşme.

She studied at the American College for Girls in Istanbul. He graduated from college in January 1916. He decided to become a medical doctor while he was in college. Since female patients preferred female doctors, female doctors were needed in the country, but Darülfünun Faculty of Medicine did not accept female students yet. During the First World War, despite financial difficulties, he went to Germany and studied at Würzburg University Faculty of Medicine. Safiye Ali, who received a state scholarship with the help of Ahmet Şükrü Bey, the Minister of Education of the time, learned German very quickly and started lessons immediately. ”Gave the title. He received his diploma in 1921 with his thesis on "Internal Pacimeningitis bleeding in babies".

Six weeks after returning to Istanbul, he went back to Germany to specialize in gynecology and pediatrics. Here is Dr. He married Ferdinand Krekeler (later named Ferdi Ali).

June 1923 as Turkey's first female doctor took AmAsInI icazetname and opened office in Cagaloglu with his wife. In the early days, no one came to her practice because she was not known, and there were even those who wanted to pay a low visit fee because she was a woman. He worked as a doctor for five years in Istanbul, but his services to maternal and child health outweighed his clinical studies. During this period, she also made history as the first female lecturer to teach medicine to girls by giving gynecology and obstetrics lessons at the first girls' medical school established within the American College.

Safiye Ali, who became the head of the Milk Drop Nursing Home, which was founded by the French Red Cross and left to Himaye-i Etfal Society in 1925 for children who were weaned from breast milk and were deprived of the opportunity to drink sterile milk, contributed to the nursing home with volunteer work. Her work on Milk Drops encourages women to breastfeed; It focused on organizing trainings for the healthy nutrition of malnourished children. Safiye Ali also established the Hilal-i Ahmer Ladies Center Young Children Practice in order to take care of sick and weak children after the age of 1 who were weaned. He represented the Society of Himaye-i Etfal in congresses held in London, Vienna and Bologna. He had to resign from Milk Drop while he was at the peak of his profession. In January 1928 he was only a doctor in the practice. At that time, she was the only woman among physicians who had a practice in Istanbul. In this period, the society was so foreign to the female doctor that his name was mentioned as "Safiye Ali Bey" in the Invalid Veterans Great Trade Yearbook. The social and scientific impressions of Safiye Ali, who was a part of the women's movement in the early Republican period, she gained at the International Women Doctors Conference held in Bologna in 1928 were published in Servet-i Fünun.

In addition to her professional work, Safiye Ali participated in the feminist movement that started in Istanbul and worked for the fight against prostitution by assuming the chairmanship of the Turkish Women's Union's Sanitary Commission.

Upon diagnosis of cancer left Turkey, he settled in Germany. II. He continued his profession as long as his health allowed during the World War II. He died on July 5, 1952 in Dortmund at the age of 58.