Czechoslovak Feminists and Their Travel to Turkey in April 1935 : (Czechoslovak) Women and Their International Political Activities between Two World Wars
Abstract
In April 1935 a delegation of Czechoslovak feminists attended the 12th congress of International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship (IAW) in Istanbul. Two members of the delegation were also received in audience by the Turkish president in Ankara.
Some evidence shows that international feminist body such as the IAW composed both national and imperial feminisms under the umbrella of universal feminism. However, the issues of a country-based membership or anti-colonial contestation challenged permanently the idea of a global sisterhood.
Various sources produced in context of the Congress are explored in order to map the role that (not only) Czech women played within interwar international politics. Traditional dichotomies developed in research on gender and nationalism as well as colonialism worldwide are challenged by perspective "from the margins" of Europe.