TURQUIE: la première formation de Janissaires féminine : (en anglais)

IZMIR - Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

Turkey’s first female Janissary band has been formed by the Ottoman Cultural Association in İzmir. The band, which is made up of 36 women, has been formed within the body of the Dokuz Eylül Janissary Band.

“Thanks to TV series featuring life in the Ottoman Empire, our band quickly became the focus of women. Now, 136 women are waiting to be part of the band,” the band’s founder, its head, and the association’s chairman, Özcan Moran said.

Moran said that they would be preparing the band, particularly for the beginning of the cruise season, in order to correctly introduce Turkish women in the Ottoman Empire to tourists.

“We have never talked about Ottoman women, or we have always shown them in the seraglio. But Ottoman women fought alongside men in wars,” he said.

The female Janissary band is open to every woman above the age of 20. They are first given three months of theoretical education.

February/15/2013 HÜRRIYET DAILY NEWS