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Photo of the Day

March 14, 2003

Constantinople Lady, Istanbul, Turkey, 1900s

Photograph by Alex Aaronsohn

"Perched on a tassled divan, swathed in silks, her face demurely veiled, this elegant Constantinople lady just might not be a lady.

"Western curiosity about the Ottoman imperial harem created a demand for exotic postcards like this in the early 1900s (the National Geographic Society's archives received this photo in 1911). But because Islamic tradition discouraged Turkey's Muslim women from being seen by men who weren't their husbands, photographers sometimes asked men to pose dressed as women."

—From Flashback department, October 2002, National Geographic magazine