Şaziye Moral

Şaziye Moral — Biography

When Şaziye Moral's career began, the appearance of Muslim women on stage was still contested; the Turkish actress went on to work in theatre and film for roughly sixty years. She is remembered as the second Muslim woman to perform on the Turkish stage after Afife Jale, and besides theatre she worked in cinema and as a voice artist.

Born in Kırcaali, Moral lost her mother at birth and spent her early childhood with her twin in her grandfather's care before moving to Istanbul, where she attended Dârülmuallimât. When she first stepped on stage in 1919, in Celal Yakup's play Kırık Kalp, she faced a police prosecution because she was a Muslim woman. She toured with an amateur troupe, entered Darülbedayi in 1924 and took part in tours alongside Raşit Rıza and Bedia Muvahhit.

On screen she was a frequent presence in the Yeşilçam era, with roles in films such as Çalıkuşu (1966), Kadın Severse (1968), Son Mektup (1969), Beyoğlu Güzeli (1971), Vefasız (1971) and Cennetin Kapısı (1973). By her retirement in 1977 she had acted in more than two hundred plays and over sixty films, and some sources count more than eighty. She died in Istanbul on 9 April 1985, aged 82, and was buried at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery after a memorial at Harbiye.