Professor Turkan Saylan (1935-2009) lived a remarkable life. As a doctor she fought against the disease and the stigma of leprosy. As a woman she fought against prejudice, discrimination, and the daily toll of patriarchal hierarchy. As a secular intellectual, educator and feminist activist she fought against ignorance, the system of oppression developing under Islamist political arrangements permeating from political structures to everyday life. She established the secularist "Association for the Support of Contemporary Living" to provide educational grants for poor children, especially girls. In 2009, while being treated for breast cancer, she was arrested for conspiracy in a supposed plot against the Islamist AKP administration, known as "Ergenekon." Public outrage eventually led the government to release her, but Professor Saylan died shortly thereafter. She told her doctors in her last hours "I have done my duty, and I am ready to die." She saw her duty as struggling for women's emancipation in Turkey, a movement dating back to the 19th century. By examining her life and writings, and the historical and political context of her work, this paper is a case study of Turkish women's struggle for emancipation and equality in the Turkish Republic.