During World War One, did Ottoman women experience the same evolution of gender roles that Western women did? Did Islam play any role in this transformation (or opposition to it)?

by George_S_Patton_III
Zooasaurus

I'll try to answer your question, sorry if it doesn't satisfy you. Basically, yes, but it has been going on even before WWI

Before WWI

While women generally were not supposed be part of military force or such, Ottoman Muslim women were explicitly called upon to contribute to military efforts as civilians as early as the 1877 Russo-Turkish War. One particular way for women to contribute is through donations. Various women organizations like Hizmet-i Nisvan Cemiyet-i Hayriyesi (Women’s Service Charitable Organization), Muhadderat-ı Osmaniye İane Komisyonu (Donation Committee of Ottoman Ladies), and Osmanlı Kadınlar Cemiyet-i Hayriyesi (Ottoman Women’s Charitable Organization) all contributed with donating all sorts of textiles for the wounded soldiers throughout wars the empire is facing. These activities in general didn't saw any objections. The Ottoman Muslim women donating these goods purchased the goods they donated or produced them themselves within the confines of their homes. The goods were not handed to the soldiers directly, but through intermediaries like the afromentioned organizations and The Red Crescent. However, with the Balkan Wars the contribution and participation of women to the war effort intensified. By this time, the Ottoman Red Crescent had established its women’s central committee, Hilal-i Ahmer Hanımlar Heyet-i Merkeziyesi (The Red Crescent Women's Centre). This committee would play a pivotal role in the wartime activities of Ottoman women together with the Müdafaa-i Milliye Osmanlı Hanımlar Heyeti (Ottoman Women’s Committee for National Defence). Within a few weeks local women’s branches has also been set up in various parts of Istanbul and Anatolia. Women in these branches organized meetings and collected money and goods. The Müdafaa-i Milliye Cemiyeti and the Red Crescent cooperated closely, the former supported in particular the soldiers in the field and their families, the latter those who were wounded or ill. Within a few days after the First Balkan War erupted, it actively called upon women to sew clothes, linen, and bandages. The materials could be picked up from the Red Crescent Headquarters, but the sewing was supposed to take place in the private homes of the women. Women's organizations also established military hospitals for wounded soldiers. For example Teali-i Nisvan Cemiyeti (Organization for the Advancement of Women), opened a small hospital with 100 beds, which it kept going for two months. The members of the Kadıköy Donanma-yı Osmani Muavenet-i Milliye Hanımlar Şubesi (Kadıköy Ladies’ Branch of the National Support for the Ottoman Fleet) spent close to 1,000 lira of the money they collected on establishing a hospital with 100 bed. While the Osmanlı Kadınlar Cemiyet-i Hayriyesi equipped a ward with 300 beds and donated 100 beds to the hospital in the Taşkışla barracks, and so on.

During WWI

As i've outlined, By the time the war was declared in November 1914, Ottoman women, Muslim and non-Muslim, had been involved in activities supporting the military and soldiers for many years. There was no need to ask whether they should or should not participate in the war effort and there was little discussion on what they should do. Despite the images of women soldiers and volunteers in newspapers, generally taking up weapons and fighting in the forefront wasn't expected from Ottoman women. The newspaper Kadınlar Dünyası made it clear, Saying that "Although Ottoman women will and can fulfill their duty to the fatherland including taking up the weapons, today our brave sons, our hero soldiers do not want their women, their mothers, their sisters to take up weapons ... but women’s duties will become more serious, thousands of women will feel the compulsion and the need to work either for the Red Crescent or – not counting as [working] at the front, but in reality not less dangerous than it – the services. … there is no doubt women will play a large role". And it's right. WWI, with its wholesale mobilization, increased the need for military uniforms even more. No longer could textiles or uniforms be imported. The Ottoman army had to fall back on its own resources in order to equip its soldiers, and with the lack of war industry in the Ottoman Empire, authorities called upon the population of the Ottoman Empire to contribute through the mediation of the Müdafaa-i Milliye Cemiyeti and the Hilal-i Ahmer Cemiyeti. The appeal succeeded, the newspapers reported daily about the generous and patriotic gifts from citizens all over the empire and several women’s organizations which had been founded with different aims turned their activities to production for the army. Women from all parts of the empire donated "winter presents" in clothing like warm underwear, vests, socks and gloves. The girls and women in Hilal-i Ahmer Hanımlar Darüssınaası (Red Crescent Ladies’ Crafsworkhome) turned from producing fine needlework to sewing winter clothes and knitting socks, and The Red Crescent’s Women’s Centre also called upon its members repeatedly to come participate in the work or to do so at home. Moreover, it successfully called upon women all over the country to establish local women’s branches of the Red Crescent and to set to work. For example the women of the Türk Kadınları Biçki Yurdu co-operated closely with the Defence Organization. Its pupils and alumni produced tens of thousands of pieces of clothing for the army. They were partly produced from materials delivered by the Defence Organization. To be able to deal with the demand, they even invited women who wanted to participate in sewing to come and work at their workshops for a salary. The girls and women working at workshops like the Mamulat-ı Dahiliye İstihlaki Kadınlar Cemiyet-i Hayriyesi, and those who worked for the organization in their own homes produced more than 100,000 pairs of socks and other pieces for the Müdafaa-i Milliye Cemiyeti instead of fancy dresses like they do during peacetime. While many of the goods produced by the women reached the soldiers and the wounded in the hospitals through intermediary organizations, newspapers also reported on individual women from the Istanbul elite and women’s organizations who visited the soldiers in the hospitals to bring them luxury products such as chocolate, oranges and cigarettes. Before WWI this was rare, but the upsurge of patriotism due to the influx of wounded men from Çanakkale seems to have been the major drive behind women taking this step.

Women's organizations also set up its own hospital close to its shop and workshop in Istanbul, which was financed by the incomes generated by the shop and workshops. In the end the total number of beds at this hospital was 150. The organization, moreover, donated a field hospital with 300 beds and necessities. Subsequently, the organization assisted in the opening of another hospital, Zapyon Askeri Hastahanesi (Zapyon Military Hospital), by providing a fully equipped hospital ward with 150 beds. Osmanlı Kadınlar Cemiyet-i Hayriyesi also continued their work in Şişli Etfal Hastanesi and Pangaltı Military Hospital to nurse wounded soldiers brought in from Çanakkale. One major change in gender roles for Ottoman women was probably on becoming volunteers and sick attendants. During WWI, an increasing number of Ottoman Muslim took the courses offered by the Red Crescent to become sick attendants over the years and worked as volunteers or paid staff in the hospitals in Istanbul and beyond. Since the involvement of Ottoman Muslim women in the nursing of wounded males would mean a serious transgression of existing gender norms, the Red Crescent made efforts to turn public opinion into accepting this shift. First, it continued to organize courses for women belonging to the Ottoman establishment who wanted to serve as voluntary nursing aids. Second, it launched a strong public campaign through announcements, messages and editorials to newspapers and magazines. Though this effort was partially successful, it didn't produce the number desired (or needed) by the organization to completely staff hospitals throughout the empire. Still, these efforts wasn't without results. During WWI, a considerable number of Ottoman Muslim women worked as voluntary nursing aids or professional sick attendants in the hospitals, initially mostly in the hospitals in Istanbul, but later also elsewhere in hospitals in the towns of Anatolia and in field hospitals right behind the front. Ottoman registers also showed the transformation of the socio-economic background of the women involved in nursing. While the women working in the hospitals during the Balkan Wars and first years of WWI seem to have been volunteers belonging to families of the middle and higher class, women in the later years seem to have been working to earn their living. These hospitals offered impoverished women the opportunity to earn a meagre income and, more importantly, a meal and, sometimes, also housing, important benefits for women affected by the war

Sources:

Ottoman Women during World War I by Elif Mahir Metinsoy

When the War Came Home by Yiğit Akın

Jihad and Islam in World War I by Erik Jan-Zurcher