HOME ASSIGNMENT

Topic :- Status and Problems of women in Turkey.

Title of the Paper :- Contemporary issues in International Relation.
Paper Code :- 201000

Submitted to…..

Obja Boruah Hazarika.

Assistant Professor .

Department of Political Science.

Dibrugarh University.

Submitted by…..

Ankur Protim Mahanta.

M.A 2ND Semester.

Roll No:- 02

Department of Political Science.

Dibrugarh University.
INTRODUCTION

Turkey is a democratic , secular ,unitary and constitutional republic with a diverse cultural

heritage. According to the World Fact book , 70-75 percent of the population are ethnic Turks , while the

Kurds are the largest minority at 18 percent. The vast majority of the population is Sunni Muslim , with

Alevis are the largest religious minority. Modern Turkey has inherited a rich history of multinational and

multicultural traditions and is also unique among the Islamic state. Turkish history often emphasize that

the women question was an important part of national reforms an that Turkish women are the first Islamic

women to be granted legal and social rights. Kemalists, the founding father of the Turkey republic

believed that granting equal rights to women in the political and social arenas was an integral part of their

modernization efforts. Among these rights , suffrage held special importance. The efforts to integrate

women into social and political life as full citizens led to the proliferation of various women professionals

, including academics , since the new Turkish republic needed a ‘‘new woman who epitomize its

ideological shift into a secular nation state.’’

History of Turkish women’s movement

In Turkey the history of the women’s movement is quite old , since it goes back to Ottoman times.

Indeed more than a century ago from 1870 onwards , the women in Turkey started to question on their

sub-ordinate status. They wrote books , published journals , formed association, launched protest action

and engaged in heated debate with both traditionalist and reformist men of the era. The most important

issue for them were polygamy and repudiation , rights given to men by sharia , the Islamic law.

At the turn of the last century , the battle became more vigorous and women’s experience in the

Balkan wars and the first world war politicized the movement. It was during the war years that women
obtained some of the rights they had fought for , they were admitted to universities in 1914 , they were

allowed to work in factories and public service in 1915 and in 1917 the ‘family act’ recognized the right

to limit polygamy to Muslim women as well as the women of other religions of the Empire. Though this

act was never applied because of the war conditions, it was very important as it was the first step in

Islamic world. In 1919, suffrage became the issue on which women launched a campaign.

Status of women in Turkey

Women in Islamic countries are basically guided by primary Islamic sources of personal law,

namely the Quran and Hadiths, as well as secondary sources like as the Ijma, Qiyas. Ijtihad in form such

as Fatwas. Islamic laws and cultural customs impact various stages of a Muslim women’s life, including

her education, employment opportunities, rights to inheritance , dres, age of marriage, freedom to consent

to marriage ,marriage contract, permissibility of birth, divorce,ability to receive justice in case of sex

crimes, property rights. Yet Turkey an Islamic country , is an interesting example from the aspect of the

position of women , because it is a country which is influenced by all the contradictions of globalization

and traditions. For many years the position of women in the society in gradually increased.

The first women’s association in Turkey, the Ottoman Welfare Organization Of Women was

founded in 1908 and became partially involved in the Young Turks movement . Writers and politicians

such as Fatma Aliye Topuz, Nezihe Muhiddin and Halide Edip Adivar also joined the movement. In her

novels Halide Edip Adivar criticized the low social status of Turkish women and what she saw as the lack

of interest of most women in changing their situation. During the Turkish war of independence , Kara

Fatma a widow proved herself as a successful military leader. After the founding of the Turkish republic

in 1923 , the feminist movement gradually became a part of the Kemalist modernization efforts. At that

time , Turkey was an underdeveloped agricultural country , in contrast to the industrialized Europe.
Women in Turkey still carried the heavy burden of giving birth to as many children as possible while

working in the field and doing housework. Nevertheless , at the same time the Kemalist government was

preparing the most radical revolution for women. First of all , women were encouraged to give up

meaning veil , a symbol of religious and patriarchal oppression. The leaders of the republic tried to set an

example by appearing in public in the company of unveiled women.

Then in 1926, the Swiss civil code gave women a status of person and therefore equal rights

to men in some aspects including marriage , divorce , inheritance etc and banned polygamy. Through civil

code , women acquired the juridical status of ‘person’ , which enable them to enjoy equal rights with men

and Turkey became the first Islamic country to eliminate the Sharia , the Islamic code that underlines the

segregation of sexes and their differential legal treatment. Furthermore women were given the right to

vote in the local elections in 1930 and in 1934 they were given equal political rights for national elections.

Again an informal quote system was implemented by Mustafa Kamal Ataturk and the number of female

deputies reached 18 among 395 members of the parliament. At present time women occupy 14.2% seats

in parliament. Yet Tansu Ciller became the first woman Prime minister of Turkey in 1993.

Mustafa Kamal was concerned with every aspect of women’s lives, including clothing as well

as duties and responsibilities in the society. According to him , the new women was to take her place in

the public life of the republic as an educated social individual. He saw women as a pillars of the society

and the wellspring of the nation . For these reasons women had to became enlighted , virtuous and

dignified in order to educate a strong new generation. He wanted neither to demonstrate to the

international community that Turkey was becoming a Western nation nor to establish control over gender

role definitions within Turkish society. On the contrary he declared openly that there would be no

difference between men and women. Moreover he promised that Turkish women would be free, enjoy

education and occupy a position equal to that of men , since they are entitled to equality.
 As early as 1923 , Mustafa Kamal had recognized and foreseen the importance of women to the

development process, he therefore tried to break down the traditional norms of women’s lives and also to

overcome the prejudices of male dominated institutions, including religion. The implementation of an

egalitarian gender policy , beginning with the new Latinized alphabet was the first step , legal reforms and

the separation of religion form the state have affected the lives of women in Turkish society. Today ,

among the professions there are marked absence of gender inequalities , which is thought to be the result

of both secular education and encouragement of women in republican era.

Again the Moslem law knows no minimum age limit to marriage. If a boy or girl is a minor , the

marriage is contracted by their parents or other legal guardians. But, the Turkish civil code fixes the age

of capacity to marry at eighteen years in case of boys and seventeen years in case of girls. In exceptional

cases for the very important reasons the judge may allow the marriage of children below that age and

above fifteen years. The age of majority is fixed in the Turkish civil code at eighteen years. Marriages

confers majority and the consent of the guardians is necessary in case of marriage of the minors.

In 1987 feminists organized the first public protest against male violence practicing in the Turkish

society followed by the campaigns against sexual harassment and campaigns seeking the right to self-

determination over the female body. These campaigns rose due to women’s wish to reject the traditional

patriarchal code of ethics , honor and religion , which left men to decide the fate of the female body. The

second wave of women’s movement in Turkey reached a wider and more diverse group of women than

the first women’s movement. The acceptance of women’s issue as an independent political and planning

problem was discussed for the first time in the Fifth Five year development plan (1985-1990) and the

General Directorate for the status and problems of women was established as a national mechanism in

1990. The General Directorate , which was connected to the Prime ministry in 1991 , has been carrying

out its activities under the responsibility of the state ministry. Its conduct a large variety of activities with

the objective of protecting women’s right of strengthening the position of women in social , economic,

cultural and political life and providing the equal rights to utilization , opportunities and capacities. Since
the 1990’s, feminists discourse has become institutionalized with the foundation of women’s studies

centers and university programs at universities such as Marmara University and Istanbul University. In

2002 the Turkish government reformed Turkish criminal and civil law, and since then, the rights of

women and men during marriage , divorce and any subsequent property rights have all been equalized. A

criminal law has been established that deals with the female sexuality as a matter of individual rights,

rather than as matter of family honor. Additions to the Turkish constitution oblige the state to use all the

necessary means to promote the equality of the sexes. Family courts were also created , labour laws were

instituted to prohibit sexism and programs were created to educate against domestic violence and to

improve access to education for girls.

The constitution of Turkey provides certain rights and facilities towards the women. Article 10

of the Turkish constitution bans any type of discrimination on the grounds of sex. It is the first country

which had a woman as the president of its constitutional court. The new code also granted women equal

rights to property acquired during marriage , which was supposedly meant to give economic value to

women’s labor within the family household. The article 41 of the Turkish constitution was revised to read

that the family is based on equality between the spouses. The new code also granted women equal rights

to property acquired during marriage , which was supposedly meant to give economic value to women’s

labor within the family household. In 2004 , an update to article 10 of the constitution placed the

responsibility for establishing gender equality on the state ‘men and women have the equal rights . The

state have the obligation to ensure that this equality exists in practice. In 2005, the Turkish Penal court

was changed to criminalize marital rape and harshen the sentences for those convicted of honor killing

occurring in major cities.

Problems of women in Turkey

The above discussion make it clear that the status of women in Turkey is very high than the

other Islamic countries. Yet the women Turkey also face some problems in their socio-economic as well

as political life. The murders of women in Turkey increase from 66 in 2002 to 953 in the first seven

month of 2009. In the Eastern and South eastern Anatolia regions , women face domestic violence ,

forced marriages and honor killing. Therefore Sefkat –Der, a non- governmental organization , has

suggested granting licensed and tax free guns to women as a way to combat domestic violence.

According to the report by the Turkish government dating from 2009 , 42% of the surveyed

women said they had been physically or sexually abused by their husbands. Almost half of them never

speaking to anyone about this. According to the United Nations report published in 2011, 39% of women

in Turkey had suffered physical violence in their lives.

A July 2008 report by the Turkish Prime ministry’s Human Rights Directorate said that in

Istanbul alone there was one honor killing every week and reported over 1000 during the previous five

years.

In 2008 , critics have pointed out that Turkey has become a major market for foreign women who

are coaxed and forcibly brought to the country by international mafia to work as a sex slaves , especially

in big and touristic cities.

While in case of education, the schooling ratio of girls exceeded that of boys for the first time in

Turkish history. In 2002-2003 educational year , the gender gap in higher education is at 5.35%. However

, the gender gap in higher education is increased between 2002 to 2012 to 9.5%.

Again , the participation rates of Turkish women in the work force is 28%. Out of 26 million

employable women , only 5.9 million are in the labor force. So women are faced problems regarding their
work also. 23.4% of women have either been forced by men to quit their job or prevented from working.

The rate of women not covered by social security is 84% in the east and 875 in the south east.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that in Turkish society the position and the status of women is higher in

comparison to that of other Islamic countries. The improvement of women’s right in Turkey is a very

good example of how commitment and effective cooperation between the EU and Turkey can work very

positively.The women’s rights issue is at the forefront in Turkey due to the increasing activities of the

women’s rights organization in Turkey. The Turkish society , kemalists efforts aimed at integrating

women into social and political life as full citizens are still valuable and prevailing ideals to be realized.

The great majority of women in Turkey now , from both rural and urban areas , want to look the world

with their eyes and they also want their voices to be heard everywhere. The development and success of

the women’s studies in Turkey will contribute both to this cause and to the creation of a public awareness

and sensitivity to gender and women’s issues and problems of society.

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