Armenian Heritage and Memory Beyond the Borders Armenian Heritage and Memory Beyond the Borders | Page 4

Where are the Western Armenian feminists?
Elbis Gesaratsyan (1830 in Ortaköy, İstanbul-
1911,Cairo) was the first female Armenian journalist
and editor of Guitar, the first Armenian Women’s
Journal in Turkey and second Women’s Journal
in the entire Ottoman Empire. The Guitar was
published in İstanbul in 1862. In Guitar, Elbis
wrote under the pseudonym "Yelbis Garabedyan"
about the role of women in the community and the
education of women. She was probably the first
modern woman who expressed her political ideas
by using the medium of writing for the public. She
collected her all kind of writings in a book called “Namagani ar
İntertsaser Hayuhis” (Letters to Armenian Educated Women’s
Foundation)
“You may have often experienced
women who more thoughtful, more
foresighted and more hard-working
than their husbands; but they
knowingly and blindly succumb to
men who do not know the right
way to do something; because the
woman should be a bird without a
tongue and the man, even if he is
a crow, he must sing and rule with
pride. Yes, my sister, these are
my thoughts. Our opinions should
blossom. Capable persons should take this as a duty, should activate
the sluggish brains in lawful ways, should be awake in holding on to her
the freedoms and should be eager to educate ourselves and encourage
other women to educate themselves. We should create reading rooms
and societies and possess such knowledge addressing hearts and
brains so that we take steps on the way of development and be
counted as human beings.”
Elbis Gesaratsian, “Namagani ar İntertsaser Hayuhis” (Letters to
Armenian Educated Women’s Foundation), 1879.