Bahire Bediş Morova Aydilek


Bahir Bediş Morova Aydilek was a Turkish artist and politician. She was one of the first eighteen women elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Biography

After attending primary and secondary school in Bolu, she became a drawing teacher at a painting school. She quit her job in 1927 because of vision problems and worked for the Republican People's Party and the Bolu halkevi.
In 1934 she was noticed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who gave her the name of bediz, which means "painter".
On February 8, 1935, during the legislative elections of 1935, she was elected MPP of the CHP in the district of Konya. She sat on the Customs and Monopolies Committee of the Fifth Legislature, which was the first to include women.
During her tenure, she showed particular attention to her constituency by defending the construction of irrigation canal projects around Beyşehir Lake, as well as the connection to the rail network with Ankara, the labor law for peasants, penalizations for abuses of public officials' power and measures to protect the historic heritage.
She died on November 10, 1938, the same day as Atatürk.