Halet ambel (27 August 1916 12 January 2014) was a Turkish fencer and archaeologist.

She was
the first Muslim woman to compete in the Olympic Games.[1]

Contents

1 Life
2 Career
3 References
4 External links

Life
ambel was born in Berlin in 1916, as her mother, Remziye Hanm, was the daughter of Ibrahim Hakki
Pasha, a former sadrazam and the Ottoman ambassador to Germany at the time. Her father, Hasan
Cemil ambel, was closely associated with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic.
She received undergraduate training in archaeology at the Sorbonne University in Paris and received a
doctorate in 1940 at the University of Istanbul.[2]
She competed in the women's individual foil event at the 1936 Summer Olympics.[3] ambel was the
first Muslim woman to compete in the Olympics.[4] Although invited by a "female German official" to
meet Hitler, ambel refused on political grounds.[5]
On returning to Istanbul after the Olympics, she began her association with Nail akrhan, a Communist
poet who became a celebrated architect. They were married for 70 years until his death in October 2008.