Duygu Asena’s 73rd Birthday

“We’ve come a long way, but there’s still a long way to go,” said Duygu Asena, the Turkish feminist writer, editor, publisher, and TV host whose life and work are celebrated in today’s Doodle by Istanbul-based guest artist Benoît Hamet.

Born in Istanbul on this day in 1946, Asena grew up in a middle-class family, and her grandfather was the personal secretary to Ataturk, the founder of The Republic of Turkey. Initially trained to become a teacher, she went on to become a journalist who advocated for women’s rights in her native land through the power of the written word.

During the 1970s, Asena wrote for the newspapers Hürriyet and Cumhuriyet. She also founded Kadınca, Turkey’s first women’s magazine in 1978. Her voice was considered an inspiration to Turkish women at a time when local social norms limited women’s autonomy over their own lives drastically.

Asena shocked Turkey with her 1987 novel, The Woman has No Name, which became an instant bestseller and was adapted into a successful film a year later.

In later years Asena also worked as an actress and as host of the program Ondan Sonra(After That) on the state-run network TRT-2. Since 2006, the writers’ association, PEN International, has awarded the Duygu Asena Award to promote women fighting for freedom of expression.

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