CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Azizi, Beren |
|---|---|
| Title | Building the Ottoman Police through Honor: Dismissing Policemen on the Grounds of Marrying Unchaste [iffetsiz] Women in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries |
| Summary | In this thesis, I focus on Ottoman policemen accused of dishonoring their profession for marrying unchaste women, and I question why marrying unchaste women was grounds for dismissal. To do so, I explore the course of honor in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire and its role in building the Ottoman Police. I argue that the dismissions of policemen on the grounds of their marriage to unchaste women were intrinsically not because of professional ethics that typically contribute to the upright institutionalization but rather because of the state’s need for the honor to legitimatize its violence. As the central state bypassed equality and invested in violence against the “dishonorable,” honor became the central value of internal security to justify the state’s unlawful actions. Hence because of the state’s investment in violence, especially by the late 19th century, the Police gained the privilege of impunity with the help of the honor, becoming an institution that could commit unlawful violence to protect the regime; thus, the Police became dependent on honor, not law. As honourless meant more legitimacy loss than lawless for the Police, the Police became a ground for reproducing honor. Consequently, masculine dignity measured by a man’s capacity to protect and control his wife’s chastity was reproduced by the disciplinary relationship between the administration and the Police. Ultimately, a man’s reputation became re-subject to the woman’s virtue. |
| Supervisor | Esmer, Tolga U. |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/azizi_beren.pdf |
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