Sabire Aydemir


Sabire Aydenir was the first female Turkish veterinary physician.

Life

She was born in the İnebolu ilçe of Kastamonu Province, Ottoman Empire in 1910. She completed primary school in her hometown and graduated high school at Erenköy Girls High School in İstanbul in 1933. She was married and mother of two, a son and a daughter. She died in 1991.

Career

Her graduation from the high school coincides with the first year female students were admitted to the School of Veterinary Medicine at Ankara University. She completed her education in Veterinary medicine in 1937 as the only female student. She served in the Refik Saydam Public Hygiene Institute for five years on bacteriology and earned the title of bacteriology expert.
Later she served in Pendik Bacterioogy institute in İstanbul and Etlik Veterinary Control and Research Institute in Ankara. Next, she volunteered to serve in another city, and she was appointed chief of the Rabies Laboratory in the Veterinary Control and Research Institute in Samsun.

Legacy

On 1 December 1984, which was the 50th anniversary of full suffrage for Turkish women, she was invited to the Turkish parliament for receiving a plaque for being the first woman in a profession. In 2016, long after her death, she was awarded an honorary prize by the Turkish veterinarians Association