Canal-U

The Health and Body of the Migrant/Refugee Women in late nineteenth Century Istanbul

This research discusses an almost unknown topic for women’s history, the case of Kırmızı Kışla (The Red Barracks). Kırmızı Kışla was a shelter for migrant/refugee women and their children who fled to Ottoman Istanbul in early 1890s from wars and other social turmoil. Kırmızı Kışla targeted mainly the relief of emigrant widows and orphans. Medical issues occupied an important place in the daily workings of this shelter as contagious diseases, unhealthy sanitary conditions, malnutrition and, death of small children and the elderly were important elements of the everyday life at the shelter. Moreover, due to the presence of pregnant among the migrant women, there was a constant need for midwives besides doctors, both of which were almost never available. The available archival documents are also rife with medical debates regarding the health and body of the migrant women. Along these lines, I will try to reconstruct the daily workings of this institution and the experiences of women taking a shelter under its roof. For this purpose, I will give prominence to the medical debates and practices as well as contemporary conceptions of health/disease, hygiene/filth and life/death.