Nezihe Araz

Fatma Nezihe Araz (11 May 1920 – 25 July 2009 ) was a Turkish writer and journalist. In addition to her 1959 best seller on the saints of Anatolia, she wrote several plays for television and the stage as well as three books about Atatürk.

Early life Araz was born on 11 May 1920 in Konya. She hailed from the eminent Bulgurzade family, renamed Araz after the Surname Law. Her father, Rıfat Araz, was an officer in Ziraat Bankası and was the bank's director in Konya at the time of her birth; he would later become a Member of Parliament for the Republican People's Party. Her mother's name for Müzeyye and she was the second wife of her father. She graduated from Ankara Girls' High School in 1941 and from the Department of Psychology and Philosophy in the Faculty of Language, History of Geography in Ankara University. In 1956, Araz started working in the newspaper Havadis, owned by the Democrat-aligned Bahadır Dülger. Araz was sent to Mecca to write a series of reports to gain circulation. One of the photos published was of an Arab urinating next to a wall, this was reportedly met with outrage from the visiting King of Iraq, Faisal II, and Araz was fired from the newspaper. as were her later plays, Öyle bir Nevcican (1979), Alaca Karanlık (1981), İmparatorun İki Oğlu (1983), Ballar Balını Buldum, Savaş Yorgunu Kadınlar ("War-Weary Women"). for which she won the Best Playwright Award from the Turkish Ministry of Culture. She won the Afife Jale Theatre Award and Avni Dilligil Theatre Award for her work.

After 1984, she prepared a show for women on TRT named Hanımlar Sizin İçin, which she wrote and presented. She wrote the script for the 1983 film İhtiras Fırtınası.

In 1993, she published Mustafa Kemal’le 1000 Gün, in which she portrayed the relationship between Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Latife Uşşaki. She then wrote more books on Atatürk, publishing Mustafa Kemal'in Ankara'sı in 1994, Mustafa Kemal’in Devlet Paşası and Bir Zamanlar O da Çocuktu: Adı Mustafa.

In 2003, she was awarded the 2003 Burhan Felek Media Award for her work in journalism.

Awards Best Playwright Award, Turkish Ministry of Culture Afife Jale Theatre Award Avni Dilligil Theatre Award 2003, Burhan Felek Media Award

Legacy In 2012, a documentary about Araz was made. The documentary, named Beyond Words, was directed by Jeyda Elsasser, grand daughter of her sister Vecihe Buyukaksoy.

Personal life Araz lived in an old people's home in her last years. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease, refused to see anybody and had reportedly lost a lot of weight. Araz died in 2009.