Ayşe Afet İnan or Afetinan was a Turkish historian and sociologist.
Background
Afet İnan was born to Ismail Hakki Bey (İsmail Hakkı Uzmay) and Şehzane Hanım from Doyran (present day Dojran), in 1908 in the district of Kesendire (Polyoroz, present day Kassandra) in Salonica Vilayet. Her mother Şehzane died of tuberculosis on May 15, 1915. Since her father then married a young girl, Ayşe Afet decided to become a teacher to earn her own living.
Education
In 1920, she finished her six years of primary education.
Career
She was one of the adopted daughters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. She and her family emigrated to Adapazarı because of the Balkan Wars. She started primary school in Adapazarı on March 4, 1913.
They then moved to Ankara, Mihalıççık, Karaoğlan, Biga.
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 in October of the same year during his visit to Izmir.
Afet was sent in 1925 by Atatürk to Lausanne, Switzerland, to learn French.
After returning to Turkey in 1927, she attended the French Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul. On finishing there she was appointed as a secondary school teacher for history. In 1935, Afet İnan went to Switzerland again and was a student of Eugène Pittard (fr) at the University of Geneva between 1936 and 1938.
In 1939, after graduating, she obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in sociology.
In 1950, she became a professor at the University of Ankara. The "Afet İnan Historical Studies Award" is given biennially by the Turkish History Foundation in cooperation with İnan"s family.