Afet İnan

Who was Afet İnan?

Ayşe Afet İnan was a Turkish historian and sociologist. She was one of the adopted daughters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Afet İnan was born to Ismail Hakki Bey and Şehzane Hanım from Doyran, in 1908 in the district of Kesendire in Salonica Vilayet.

She and her family emigrated to Adapazarı because of the Balkan Wars. She started primary school in Adapazarı on March 4, 1913. And then they moved to Ankara, Mihalıççık, Karaoğlan, Biga. Her mother Şehzane died of tuberculosis on May 15, 1915. Since her father married a young girl, Ayşe Afet decided to become a teacher to earn by herself. When they lived in Biga, her younger sister Nezihe was born to her father Ismail Hakki and his second wife. In 1920, she finished the six-years primary education. In 1921, they settled to Alanya. In 1922, she got a teaching qualification in Elmalı and was assigned as headteacher to Elmalı Girls' School. She graduated from the Bursa Teachers College for Girls in 1925, and started to work as a primary school teacher in Izmir. She met Mustafa Kemal Atatürk the same year in October during his visit to Izmir.