Halida or Khalida Edib was a Turkish writer. While she was still 16 years old she wrote a controversial book against the Purdah, which made her well known in the whole of Turkey. She organised a women brigade in 1921. She became actively involved in Turkish literacy, political and social affairs and played a significant role in nationalist Pan-Turkish movement. She and her husband Adnan Adivar joined the Turkish war of liberation in Anatolia. She authored Handan (Khandan) which dealt with the problems of an educated woman. Her most famous novel The Daughter of Smyrana was about a young women who worked for the liberation of her country and of the two men who loved her. Her other important works were The Clown and his Daughter, The Turkish Ordeal, Conflict of East and West in Turkey, Turkey Faces West and her Memoirs in two volumes. She travelled and gave lectures in United States, London, Paris and India during the height of her fame in the 1930s. On her return she became professor of English literature at Istanbul University in 1939 and a Member of Parliament in 1950-54. She was the minister of Education and opened schools and college for girls. - See Khalida Abib Khanam. Halida Salih was born in Istanbul.