Lady Mary also focused on the appearance of the women and their homes as markers of social status: ornate decoration, detailed dresses, and an abundance of jewels reflected higher social status. Lady Mary compares the beauty and manners of Fatima, a Turkish woman, to that of European women. Fatima would be considered beautiful “either in England or Germany” and could be “suddenly transported upon the most polite throne of Europe nobody would think her other than born and bred to be a queen, though educated in a country we call barbarous.” Grace Ellison was another woman who traveled to the Ottoman Empire and wrote of the imperial harem. In An Englishwoman in a Turkish Harem published in 1915, Ellison sought to “correct” the prejudice and hatred that dominated the British national attitude towards Turkey. She wrote of the beauty and grandeur of the Ottoman Empire and of the great friends she had made there. She spoke highly of the progressive movements in Turkey and claimed that rights for women were increasing. Ellison claimed the English should attempt to better understand the Turkish woman. She wrote that the Turkish woman is “proud” and “insists that her dignity be respected.” Ellison also spoke extensively on the institution of slavery in the Ottoman Empire and voiced her desire to save the women in the harem. She “longed to break down for them the lattice-work which is always there between them and the sun,” and lamented about the women’s ignorance of life outside the harem: “If they stay it is because they wish to stay, and are therefore happy. Their existence, however, seems a most heartrending waste of human life.” Her analysis of cruel and antiquated Ottoman practices was not limited to the concubines, as she described her interaction with eunuchs: “It is difficult for me, however, to remember that these poor mutilated anachronisms are great personages at the Ottoman Court.” Ellison condemned the act of veiling as form of “slavery”. In 1868, Empress Eugénie of France visited the Imperial Harem, which had significant consequences. She was taken by Sultan Abdülaziz to greet his mother, Valide Sultan Pertevniyal Sultan. Reportedly, Pertevniyal became outraged by the presence of a foreign woman in her harem, and so she slapped the empress in the face, almost provoking an international incident. The visit of the empress, however, did lead to a dress reform in the harem. Western fashion