In the dystopian novel "The Sleeper Awakes," by British author H. G. Wells, a character called Graham, a Victorian man, falls asleep. When he opens his eyes again, 200 years have passed. He sees nurseries everywhere. "But so many orphans," he thinks to himself. Then he realizes that these children are not actually orphans; They are there, at the nurseries, because their mothers are working. And he remembers the old world, longingly: "In our time, a woman was supposed not only to bear children, but to cherish them, to devote herself to them, to educate them – all the essentials of moral and mental education a child owed its mother ... Only there was an ideal – that figure of a grave, patient woman, silently and serenely mistress of a home, mother and maker of men – to love her was a sort of worship ... "

Hermeticism

It is said that Hermeticism, derived from Batiniyya (Esotericism), emerged in Egypt thousands of years ago. This belief system was based on various treatises, known as Hermetica, attributed to a person called Hermes. It is believed that the Hermetica were written by members of the order of Serapis, headquartered in Alexandria. With the reprinting of these treatises in 15th century Venice, Hermeticism was revived, fueling the Age of Enlightenment.

The utopia of Hermetics is Novus Ordo Seclorum (New Order of the Ages). This is a vision of a socialist world state where property ownership, gender differences and the institution of family don't exist. Adherents of Batiniyya believe that God is hermaphroditic, both male and female. According to them, when the human was first created, it was immortal and bore traces of both genders. It became mortal when it was separated into two sexes, male and female. Consequently, in order to become immortal again, the gender difference has to disappear.

In the Gospel of Thomas, found in Egypt in 1945 and featuring an esoteric (Batini) style, and in the treatise of Clement of Alexandria, it is claimed that it was asked of Jesus when his kingdom would come. And he said: "When the two will be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male with the female neither male or female."

Since there would be gender equality in this world under the rule of the Batinis, the concept of family would also be unnecessary. As such, Plato, one of the Hermetic Greek philosophers, desired the abolition of the nuclear family in his work Republic, in which he described his dream state. Thus, individuals – that is, citizens – would reach unity as a society. In this ideal, the children that the community needed were best obtained by men and women coming together, making women a means of reproduction, rather than falling in love with them.

The Batini project to abolish the family was founded on the most critical part of this institution, the woman. This is probably why the first person to use the term "feminism" was a socialist – French philosopher Charles Fourier, who died in 1837. According to this French socialist, who wanted the nuclear family to disappear and children to be raised collectively rather than by their parents, a dictatorship of feminism and socialism would be established in the world and the dictator would reside in Istanbul.

Thesis + antithesis = synthesis

Dialectic is explained in Kabbalah via the terms Chesed and Gevurah (Kabbalah is an esoteric discipline in Jewish mysticism, while Chesed and Gevurah are sefirots or attributes in Kabbalah). The sculptor's right hand, Chesed, carves the stone, while his left hand, Gevurah, holds the stone still. The right and left hands actually serve the same purpose while exerting power in opposite directions.

Adherents of Batiniyya are advancing towards the goal of the socialist New World Order with this method.

For example, just as the activities of radical religious people feed inter-religious dialogue; capitalism and communism, which are seen as thesis and antithesis, actually support each other for the synthesis of socialism. Therefore, both communism and capitalism have tried to pull the woman to business life by separating her from home and family.

Friedrich Engels, one of the authors of "The Communist Manifesto," states in his work "Origin of the Family": "The first condition for the liberation of the wife is to bring the whole female sex back into public industry, and that this in turn demands the abolition of the monogamous family as the economic unit of society."

He continues: "With the transfer of the means of production into common ownership, the single family ceases to be the economic unit of society. Private housekeeping is transformed into a social industry. The care and education of the children becomes a public affair; society looks after all children alike, whether they are legitimate or not."

International Women's Day, March 8, which is celebrated all over the world today, was first started as a communist holiday by Vladimir Lenin, former Premier of the Soviet Union in 1922 with the help of German feminist Clara Zetkin. However, capitalists, did not lag far behind them in appealing to women's feelings. In fact, they do not force women to work in factories and collective farms, as in communism. Instead, they resort to sweet propaganda methods, with slogans like "Strong Women" and "We Can Do It!"

As the French philosopher Frederic Lordon said in his book "Capitalisme, desir et servitude" ("Capitalism, desire and servitude"), in which he criticizes capitalism, that business systems capture the employee with passionate phrases such as "self-actualization" and "empowerment."

Revolution and women

The Hermetics started working, following revolutions around the globe, to reach the ideal of ​​a new life, with new women in the New World. After all, if the nationalist movement could divide multi-national empires into states, feminism could divide the family into individuals. If the kings, who were considered the fathers of the people, could be deposed and the nations under their rule could be "liberated," the father of the family could also be deposed and women could be "liberated."

What happened to the Ottoman Empire was an example of this. The Young Turks, a political reform movement organized in Batini lodges, put an end to the Ottoman Empire by overthrowing Sultan Abdülhamid II in 1909, and established the New Turkey under the rule of Ittihat Terakki (Union and Progress Party). However, changing people was much more difficult than changing the regime.

Ziya Gökalp, one of the ideologists of the Young Turks, wrote about this: "After we made the political revolution, we were left with a second task: to prepare the social revolution!" The women's branches of Ittihat Terakki immediately started working. Women's congresses were being organized, and feminism propaganda was rampant with the removal of the control over the press.

In the Ikinci Meşrutiyyet Devri (Second Constitutional Era), where slogans of "freedom" and "equality" filled the air, clothing became the main indicator of women's freedom. Wide-skirted burqas began to be replaced by the "constitutional burqa," which revealed body lines. But even that was not enough for the Young Turks; Ittihat Terakki's media outlet Yeni Mecmua and Abdullah Cevdet's Ictihad magazine declared war against the veil. They claimed that there was no veiling in Islam, that this custom acquired from the Greeks.

Halide Edip, who was described by a 1917 British report as "a Jew defending Turkish women's right to vote," was the most famous feminist of the new Turkey. She wrote novels and gave speeches to change the role of women in society. Since men were at the front during World War I, women had to enter business life.

In one of her articles, Halide Edip said about this: "Turkish women not only shed their veils but also took the place of men. They worked to feed their families and occupied vacant places. Turkish women entered banks, shops, and ministries. As such, Turkish women gained such freedom that their husbands, who returned from the war, could not put an end to it."

Halide Edip, who puts forth feminist messages in all her novels, also dealt with gender equality in her novel "Yeni Turan" ("New Crescent"). Oğuz, the protagonist of the novel, was told by a woman, "You will make us feel like women," his response was: "Women? God forbid, I invented a new policy just to remove you from the guise of women."

New woman

Today, statistics show that in countries where women's employment is increasing, divorces are also increasing. While getting married and starting a family is getting more difficult every day, extramarital (or nonmarital) affairs are encouraged from a young age. Moreover, unlike in the Old World, men and women are no longer seen as two different parts that complement, complete and need each other.

Women, because they are "removed from the guise of women" as per Edip's phrasing, are considered to be a part that is the same and equal to men. So, has this Hermetic New World brought happiness to women? Are women happier now? It is unfortunately very difficult to claim this. Studies show that in countries where gender equality is highest in education and income, like Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway, rates of rape, violence and abuse are much higher.

In the film "All About Eve," Broadway star Margo says: "Funny business, a woman's career – the things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman. That's one career all females have in common, whether we like it or not: Being a woman. Sooner or later, we've got to work at it, no matter what other careers we've had or wanted. And in the last analysis, nothing is any good unless you can look up just before dinner – or turn around in bed – and there he is. Without that, you're not a woman."

Who knows, maybe the "strong woman" is not actually the one "standing on her own feet," but – as in the Old World – the woman who raises, nurtures and educates her children herself at home, and supports her man.