Encum Yamulki is the daughter of Mustafa Yamulki Pasha. Mustafa Yamulki was born in 1866 in the city of Sulaymaniyah and married Safiye Khanima, the daughter of Hussein Pasha and the sister-in-law of Said Pasha, in 1888. Said Pasha is the father of the famous Sherif Pasha and served as the head of the Council of State and for a time as the Minister of Foreign Affairs during the reign of Abdulhamid II. They had one son and three daughters; Aziz, Zehra, Encum and Meliha. Encum Yamulki was born in the province of Sulaymaniyah in 1895.
Encum Khanima, the daughter of Mustafa Pasha Yamulki, was also involved in the Kurdish issue and politics, like her father and brother. She, like her husband and other friends, joined the work of the Kurdistan Women’s Society (CTK) and took her place among the founders of the Kurdish Women’s Society (KPJK). The first Kurdish women’s organization was established in 1919. In the April 26, 1919 issue of the Serbestî newspaper, a news item titled “A New Organization for Kurds” was published, and in this news item, information was published about the establishment of the Kurdish Women’s Society [Kurd Women’s Development Society-KPJK]. Encum Yamulki was the first Kurdish woman to establish a women’s social association, which included a group of Kurdish women, and its mission was a social mission concerned with women’s rights issues. She called on Kurdish women to participate effectively in associations and activities related to women’s rights. In 1919, she established a social association in Istanbul and headed it. The mission of this association was to present and write social studies on the rights and freedoms of Kurdish women. She was very active and influential in this organization. The Turkish Writers Association continued: Encum, Yamulki, is a symbol of Kurdish history.
Encum Yamulki took the path of service, becoming a doctor. In the last years of the Ottoman Empire, she showed great interest in women’s rights and actively participated in the “Women’s Rights Protection Society”. This association represents an advocacy for the advancement of women in her society. In the need for significant progress, she collaborated with leading women from different ethnic backgrounds – Armenian, Turkish and Circassian – to create practical initiatives. This collaboration led to the establishment of women’s associations, schools aimed at educating girls, and libraries that provided access to knowledge. Encum Yamulki was a scholar and had knowledge of languages, speeches and articles, and thanks to her intelligence and courage she was rewarded with honor and dignity, and she was close to the people so they loved her, and she was among the women who gathered in the Diwan (of Sultan Hamid), who spoke and announced the need for the awakening of Kurdish women, and their participation side by side with men and without discrimination in all social activities and new life. Encum Yamulki was a fighter who called for the freedom of Kurdish women and wanted them to learn and educate themselves in order to raise their cultural level. After the establishment of the Turkish state, she took refuge in Europe and settled in France, where she passed away in 1968.
Encum Yamulki (1895-1968)
