Article by the Winner of 2018 PEN Duygu Asena Prize Women’s Right in Turkey: Moving forward or back ?
October16,2017
Nazan Moroğlu, LL.M. (16.10.2017)
Turkey is an significant example, between modernization and tradition. After the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923 equality between women and men was one of the fundamental principles. Atatürk, the founder of the new state, wanted to create a secular republic. Consequently, the new government passed a Civil Law that banned polygamy, required civil marriage, and made women legally equal to men in terms of divorce, inheritance, and testimony in the courts. The creation of a secular state, the first-ever in a Muslim country made it possible to pass legislation that recognized women and men as equal citizens.
The Latin alphabet replaced the Arabic script (in 1928), building a bridge to western contemporary culture.
Turkish women were granted the right to vote and to be elected as MP in 1934. After the elections in 1935, 18 women had chairs in the Parliament. In 1935 Turkey was the 2nd country in the world in terms of “the number of women MP’s”.
Today Turkey guarantees the equality between women and men in its Constitution and other laws. Turkey has undertaken to further develop policies, to make legal arrangements and to put these laws into practice in accordance with international agreements such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW as Women’s Treaty is a powerful key which opens the doors to gender equality.
Although Turkey has ratified CEDAW in 1985 and made legal changes on the way to gender equality, the lives of many women today are still shaped by social and religious customs instead of constitutional rights and the Civil Code. Women’s NGO’s work to target lawmakers along with decision-making processes to help women gain an awareness of their rights and to put these rights into practice.
But since last decade in Turkey religious conservatism found a large area to grow and pushed regulations trying to discipline women in a more domestic sphere.
I recall the famous verses of our renowned poet Nazım Hikmet with a sad tingling within me: “I am ahead of my father, behind my unborn child”. I hope to be mistaken but I think nowadays, our girls are born into a more backward life standard than their mothers and even their grandmothers. Where we were and where we have come to?
In 1928 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk said: “..The social reforms and progress cannot be actualized without the support of women, a society that neglets women is destined to left behind. Women have to see the world through their own eyes” these words tell us the aim of the republican reforms and gives the road map to gender equality.
And nowadays what we are talking about? The members of governing party are pushing the idea in their public speeches: “that all women should have at least three children”; “pregnant women should stay at home, should not walk on the streets; “women are women and men are men. Is it possible for them to be equal?”; “a woman should be chaste, she should not laugh in public”; "family planning and contraception are not for Muslim families... A woman who rejects motherhood, who refrains from being around the house, however successful her working life is, is deficient, is incomplete.”
The main issue started with abolishment of the Ministery responsible for Women Issues. This Ministry was founded in 1990. But in 2011 was abolished and replaced by the Ministry for Family Affairs and Social Politics. This is a step backwards for equality of men and women and for democracy. What we need is actually a Ministry for Women Issues involving...
And finally since July 25, we are talking on a draft law proposal allowing “müftü”, religious civil servants who work under the umbrella of Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and do not presently have the right to perform civil marriages, to be able register civil marriages. Step by step social life in Turkey is trying to be formed in line with religious rules. In Turkey there are 919 marriage bureaus in 81 provinces. This is not a regulation that emerged out of need.The bill, submitted to the parliament on July 25th, caused a major controversy over secularism. According to the laws of Turkish Republic only civil marriage is legal in Turkey. This draft bill proposal is also violating the constitution’s secular state principle that rules “all citizens should be treated equally and the state does not discriminate in any way based on race, sex or religion..”
As women lawyers and NGO’s in Turkey we are struggling with the withdrawal of this bill proposal from the agenda. We all know gender equality is the basic principle of democracy as well as a condition for sustainable development.
Last but not least, the womens groups are about changing patriarcal mindsets and about forcing society to recognise the dignity of women as individual human beings.
This new authority for the muftis; exclusion of evolution theory in school textbooks; addition of jihad in curricula; the protocol of the Ministry of National Education with Ensar: these are all changes related. How do you see this picture?
The ‘new state’ assertions are actually quite obvious. The AKP member who says ‘we are creating a new state’ is well known. Of course, unless the Constitution is lifted entirely, the secular state of law cannot be abolished. However, the Constitution is getting brought to a point of emptiness. Secular and scientific education is being overlooked… When we look at this picture, societal peace, democracy, secularism, and equality between men and women have been damaged severely. You see that the members of the public are very edgy...
People, especially women, have most often been saying that they are no longer able to ‘dream’. This is something that catches my attention the most.
There had been an improvement regarding women’s rights all across the world after 80’s. And, Turkey had also gone through great progress after having signed the convention for elimination of all sorts of discrimination against women. A ministry on women was created; associations working on women got strengthened; branches in bar associations were established; and, most importantly, academic studies on women were started at universities. These kinds of activities are still being done now but it is not told to the public enough under the current circumstances.
What do you think will happen if the proposal on muftis’ authority to register marriages passes?
There is also still a question mark as to how such authority will be practiced. The institutions currently responsible for these procedures and their implementation are the Interior Ministry. So, if the muftis will now be officially handling marriage registering, how exactly will it be under the supervision of the Ministry? Because, muftis work under and report to the Presidency of Religion Affairs (Diyanet). Even though the mufti’s authority will be ‘official’, will they handle the marriage ceremony in line with official procedures or religious ones? Will they be wearing a religious outfit, for example? Or, since they will be doing it as a public officer, will they appear in something different? Apparently, there will absolutely be some sort of chaos in this regard. Not only that, there is already no need for such thing...
Article by the Winner of 2018 PEN Duygu Asena Prize Women’s Right in Turkey: Moving forward or back ?
Nazan Moroğlu, LL.M.
(16.10.2017)
Turkey is an significant example, between modernization and tradition. After the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923 equality between women and men was one of the fundamental principles. Atatürk, the founder of the new state, wanted to create a secular republic. Consequently, the new government passed a Civil Law that banned polygamy, required civil marriage, and made women legally equal to men in terms of divorce, inheritance, and testimony in the courts. The creation of a secular state, the first-ever in a Muslim country made it possible to pass legislation that recognized women and men as equal citizens.
The Latin alphabet replaced the Arabic script (in 1928), building a bridge to western contemporary culture.
Turkish women were granted the right to vote and to be elected as MP in 1934. After the elections in 1935, 18 women had chairs in the Parliament. In 1935 Turkey was the 2nd country in the world in terms of “the number of women MP’s”.
Today Turkey guarantees the equality between women and men in its Constitution and other laws. Turkey has undertaken to further develop policies, to make legal arrangements and to put these laws into practice in accordance with international agreements such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW as Women’s Treaty is a powerful key which opens the doors to gender equality.
Although Turkey has ratified CEDAW in 1985 and made legal changes on the way to gender equality, the lives of many women today are still shaped by social and religious customs instead of constitutional rights and the Civil Code. Women’s NGO’s work to target lawmakers along with decision-making processes to help women gain an awareness of their rights and to put these rights into practice.
But since last decade in Turkey religious conservatism found a large area to grow and pushed regulations trying to discipline women in a more domestic sphere.
I recall the famous verses of our renowned poet Nazım Hikmet with a sad tingling within me: “I am ahead of my father, behind my unborn child”. I hope to be mistaken but I think nowadays, our girls are born into a more backward life standard than their mothers and even their grandmothers. Where we were and where we have come to?
In 1928 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk said: “..The social reforms and progress cannot be actualized without the support of women, a society that neglets women is destined to left behind. Women have to see the world through their own eyes” these words tell us the aim of the republican reforms and gives the road map to gender equality.
And nowadays what we are talking about? The members of governing party are pushing the idea in their public speeches: “that all women should have at least three children”; “pregnant women should stay at home, should not walk on the streets; “women are women and men are men. Is it possible for them to be equal?”; “a woman should be chaste, she should not laugh in public”; "family planning and contraception are not for Muslim families... A woman who rejects motherhood, who refrains from being around the house, however successful her working life is, is deficient, is incomplete.”
The main issue started with abolishment of the Ministery responsible for Women Issues. This Ministry was founded in 1990. But in 2011 was abolished and replaced by the Ministry for Family Affairs and Social Politics. This is a step backwards for equality of men and women and for democracy. What we need is actually a Ministry for Women Issues involving...
And finally since July 25, we are talking on a draft law proposal allowing “müftü”, religious civil servants who work under the umbrella of Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and do not presently have the right to perform civil marriages, to be able register civil marriages. Step by step social life in Turkey is trying to be formed in line with religious rules. In Turkey there are 919 marriage bureaus in 81 provinces. This is not a regulation that emerged out of need.The bill, submitted to the parliament on July 25th, caused a major controversy over secularism. According to the laws of Turkish Republic only civil marriage is legal in Turkey. This draft bill proposal is also violating the constitution’s secular state principle that rules “all citizens should be treated equally and the state does not discriminate in any way based on race, sex or religion..”
As women lawyers and NGO’s in Turkey we are struggling with the withdrawal of this bill proposal from the agenda. We all know gender equality is the basic principle of democracy as well as a condition for sustainable development.
Last but not least, the womens groups are about changing patriarcal mindsets and about forcing society to recognise the dignity of women as individual human beings.
This new authority for the muftis; exclusion of evolution theory in school textbooks; addition of jihad in curricula; the protocol of the Ministry of National Education with Ensar: these are all changes related. How do you see this picture?
The ‘new state’ assertions are actually quite obvious. The AKP member who says ‘we are creating a new state’ is well known. Of course, unless the Constitution is lifted entirely, the secular state of law cannot be abolished. However, the Constitution is getting brought to a point of emptiness. Secular and scientific education is being overlooked… When we look at this picture, societal peace, democracy, secularism, and equality between men and women have been damaged severely. You see that the members of the public are very edgy...
People, especially women, have most often been saying that they are no longer able to ‘dream’. This is something that catches my attention the most.
There had been an improvement regarding women’s rights all across the world after 80’s. And, Turkey had also gone through great progress after having signed the convention for elimination of all sorts of discrimination against women. A ministry on women was created; associations working on women got strengthened; branches in bar associations were established; and, most importantly, academic studies on women were started at universities. These kinds of activities are still being done now but it is not told to the public enough under the current circumstances.
What do you think will happen if the proposal on muftis’ authority to register marriages passes?
There is also still a question mark as to how such authority will be practiced. The institutions currently responsible for these procedures and their implementation are the Interior Ministry. So, if the muftis will now be officially handling marriage registering, how exactly will it be under the supervision of the Ministry? Because, muftis work under and report to the Presidency of Religion Affairs (Diyanet). Even though the mufti’s authority will be ‘official’, will they handle the marriage ceremony in line with official procedures or religious ones? Will they be wearing a religious outfit, for example? Or, since they will be doing it as a public officer, will they appear in something different? Apparently, there will absolutely be some sort of chaos in this regard. Not only that, there is already no need for such thing...