The Liberation of non-Muslim Women and Children in Turkey

Abstract

Zabel Essayan’s incisive report, “The Liberation of non-Muslim Women and Children in Turkey” (1919), documents how the Ottoman government and its proxies targeted women and children with specific forms of genocidal violence. Written in the immediate aftermath from a position of exile, the report is translated in its entirety into English and interpreted for its value to recent developments in gender and genocide studies. While the report has been discussed by scholars as a document of witness, rarely has Zabel’s writing been examined in depth for its analysis of specific forms of sexual atrocity central to genocidal design nor as an explicitly feminist text that calls for Armenian women to assume a central role in the post-war recuperation effort.