GENDER EQUALITY IN Turkey

The work of UN Women aims to:

 Support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of

Women, in the formulation of policies, global standards, and norms
 Help Member States implement these standards through technical and
financial support and facilitating effective partnerships with civil society
 Hold the UN system accountable to its own commitments on gender equality

UN Women's priority areas are:

 Expanding women’s leadership and political participation

 Enhancing women’s economic empowerment
 Ending violence against women
 Fostering peace and security
 Incorporating gender equality into governance and national planning
 Informing the post-2015 development goals
 Bringing a gender equality lens to programs that address HIV and AIDS

The “Women in politics: 2023” map, created by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
and UN Women, presents new data for women in executive positions and national
parliaments as of 1 January 2023. Data show that women are underrepresented at
all levels of decision-making worldwide and that achieving gender parity in political
life is far off.

Women serve as Heads of State and/or Government in only 31 countries. Women

make up 26.5 per cent of Members of Parliament. Globally, less than one in four
Cabinet Ministers is a woman (22.8 per cent). New data show that women lead
important human rights, gender equality, and social protection policy portfolios, while
men dominate policy areas like defence and economy.

-Reference :

Laws for women in turkey :

 Turkey gave full political rights to women, including the right to elect and be elected
locally in 1930 (nationwide in 1934).
  Article 10 of the Turkish Constitution bans any discrimination, state or private, on the
grounds of sex.
   It is the first country to have a woman as the President of its Constitutional Court. Article
41 of the Turkish Constitution reads that the family is "based on equality between
spouses".

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Women in Turkey have an active participation in national politics, and the number of women in
the Turkish parliament has been increasing steadily in recent elections

Two parties were founded by women: National Women's Party of Turkey in 1972 (up to 1980)
and Women's Party (Turkey) in 2014

When it passed a series of laws on gender equality in the 1920s and 1930s,
giving women among other things the right to vote, Turkey was far ahead of its
time. Many women in Western countries wondered then why they were worth
less than women in Turkey.Polygamy was banned and women were granted the
right to divorce, to custody, to education and to inheritance. Women were freed
from the harem and allowed into the ballrooms where they could dance with men
in public.--- Reference(equaltimes.org)
Atatürk even set an example of integration within his own family: one of his
adopted daughters, Sabiha Gökçen, became the world’s first female fighter pilot
in 1937. Five decades later, in 1983, Turkey legalised abortion, once again ahead
of many Western democracies. .--- Reference(equaltimes.org)

In keeping with that tradition, Turkey hosted the Council of Europe’s Istanbul

Convention in 2011 and became the first out of a total of 45 mostly European
countries to sign the first binding agreement against violence against women and
domestic violence, regardless of sexual orientation (safeguards for LGBTI people are
included in the Convention), based on prevention, protection, taxation and integrated
policies. Ankara ratified the Convention and passed its own corresponding Law 6284
in 2012.

Then, Turkey became the first country to leave the treaty.

“We don’t want to be killed!”

On 1 July 2021, the effective date of Turkey’s withdrawal from the Convention,
thousands of women demonstrated in the country’s largest cities. The slogans on
their signs included “Enforce the Istanbul Convention. Let’s put an end to femicide”
and “Turkey is a giant cemetery for women.” .--- Reference(equaltimes.org)

What this convention/treaty did was:

protection of women against violence, Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)17 on gender equality

standards.--- Reference(equaltimes.org)
Statistics indicate that violence against women has
been increasing in Turkey since Erdoğan’s Justice and
Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002.
.--- Reference(equaltimes.org)

Recent years have seen an average of 400 femicides a year. In 2018, 440 women
were murdered, a quarter at the hands of their husbands. In 2019, the number was
474, the highest in a decade. Most of the killers were partners or family members.

According to the We Will End Femicide platform, the most recent figures are inconclusive. In
2020, the courts registered 300 femicides, though another 171 women were killed under
suspicious circumstances, some of which were ruled to be suicides. .---
Reference(equaltimes.org)
In recent years, Erdoğan has urged women to have at least three children,
accused feminists of not understanding that “God created women for men,”
referred to birth control as “treason” and to abortion as “murder.”
>Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since
2014 Tayyip Erdoğan

The issue of gender equity is important, relevant and current. Debates and writings on the subject
are increasing and are diverse in their perspectives. The Islamic perspective on the issue is the least
understood and most misrepresented by non-Muslims and, at times, by some Muslims as well.
Reference---(book-gender-equity by Dr. Jamal Badawi

It states that there is only One Creator of all mankind. As such, there is no room for arguments of
superiority based on one’s having been created by a “superior’’ God, as there is only One God
(Allah). Nor is there any basis for a caste system based on some having been created in a way which
is “different” from others or is superior. As Prophet MuhammadP explained, “... You all belong to
Adam, and Adam was created from dust.” In the process of human reproduction, there is no
superiority or inferiority; kings and paupers, males and females, are created from what the Qur’an
describes as “despised fluid.” Our having been created by the One and Only Creator implies our basic
equality before Him; He is just to all. reference --( book-gender-equity by Dr. Jamal Badawi

Human misinterpretations, culturally-bound opinions or manipulations are not congruent with what
Islam teaches. --(book-gender-equity by Dr. Jamal Badawi

 Turkey already has one of the highest rates of child marriage in Europe. Yet
instead of helping women and minorities by implementing the Istanbul
convention – the treaty designed to combat violence against women – the
government under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has done the opposite, withdrawing
from the convention and targeting both feminists and LGBTQ+ activists.
Erdoğan has repeatedly said that women cannot be equal to men and gender
equality is “against nature”. Reference--theguardian.com
Meanwhile, on the other side of Turkey’s border in Iran, girls are being
poisoned. In at least 26 elementary and high schools, more than 1000 girls
have reportedly been targeted in chemical gas attacks. Women and girls have
been the leading voice in demanding social change, equality and freedom in
the country. The bravery of Iranian women is remarkable: this is why they are
being targeted by the regime. Reference--theguardian.com
Gender-based relief efforts are essential to rebuild better and fairer
societies. Studies show that when women are given financial aid and
psychological support, they use this leverage primarily for their families, their
children and their communities. There never has been a more urgent time for
global solidarity, and especially, global sisterhood. There never has been a
more urgent time to say out loud that we can both dearly love and care for our
own countries or our adopted countries and at the same time be citizens of the
world, citizens of humankind. Reference--theguardian.com

One of main causes is the disparity in income between women and

men, the study says. Women’s income, on average, was just 47
percent that of men in 2019. The reason for this is the large share
of women remaining outside the workforce: labor force participation
rates were just 34 percent for women, against 72.6 percent for men.
More recent data show the pandemic has made the situation still
worse, pushing the rate for women to just 30 percent.
Empowering Turkish women in leadership positions will not only lead to better
decision-making for women, but create strong female role models to inspire
the next generation of girls to pursue their dreams and accelerate our
unyielding fight for equality. reference-- undp.org
A 2020 World Economic Forum report, however, found that women make up only 26
percent of data and AI positions in the workforce, while the Stanford Institute for Human-
Centered AI's 2021 AI Index Report found that women make up just 16 percent of tenure-
track faculty focused on AI globally. Reference--deloitte.com

Gender equality and the inclusion of women in the labour market are considered
essential tools for nations to reach their full potential and ensure sustainable
development, growth and a prosperous life. However, the full implementation of this goal
constitutes a challenge for many states, regardless of their level of development.
Reference-- lexology.com
Protection against gender-based discrimination is ensured at a constitutional level.
According to article 10 of the Turkish Constitution, everyone is equal in the eyes of the
law, irrespective of their:

 language;
 race;
 skin colour;
 gender;
 disability;
 political view;
 philosophical beliefs;
 religion; or
 sect.

Men and women have equal rights, and the state is obliged to ensure this equality.
In parallel, article 5 of the Turkish Labour Act (TLA) No. 4857 provides that employers
cannot discriminate against employees on the grounds of the above factors. Having set
the prohibition against discrimination in general, article 5 also specifically prohibits
different treatment based on gender and pregnancy in terms of:

 the conclusion of employment contracts;

 the determination and implementation of the terms and conditions of employment
contracts; and
 termination.

Paying an employee a lower salary because of their gender is also prohibited under the
same article. Reference--- lexology.com
Turkish women continue to be the victims of rape and honour killings, especially in Turkish
Kurdistan, where most crimes against women take place.[4] Research by scholars[5][6] and
government agencies[7] indicate widespread domestic violence among the people of Turkey, as
well as in the Turkish diaspora. Despite Turkey being a patriarchal society, there are many
historical examples of Turkish women involved in public life and activism. Reference--
en.wikipedia.org

Some modern-day Muslim societies are repressive of women’s rights. Access to education,
for example, is not given to women on the same level as men
• women’s leadership and political participation
• women’s economic empowerment
• Ending violence against women
• Fostering peace and security
• Incorporating gender equality into governance and national planning
Modern and interpretive theological groups believe that women’s roles vary according to the
demands of the time: for women should play an active role in participating in political dissent
against injustice; women should lead as teachers, scholars and government advisors,

He forgot the The Prophet’s wife Khadija features extensively in early sources as the richest
businessperson of her time, foremost amongst all of Arabia’s entrepreneurs.