taken from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3681494.stm
Spotlight on Turkish women's rights
Before they signed up to the EU, Catholic recruits Malta and Poland
secured guarantees that - whatever reservations Brussels had about the
compatibility of their strict abortion laws with women's rights - there
would be no meddling.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was never likely to have much
luck persuading the European Commission that his proposal to make adultery
a crime should receive a similarly sympathetic hearing on religious
grounds.
To opponents of Turkey's bid for EU entry, the effort to re-introduce an
adultery ban - repealed in 1998 because of its disproportionately negative
impact on women - was further evidence that the country is just too Muslim
for the club.
It had, however, been part of a package of currently stalled reforms to
the country's penal code which are for the most part seen as improving
women's lot and bringing the country closer in line with the EU.
"The adultery law has been held up as an example of women's oppression in
an Islamic country," says Anna Karamanou, the former Greek head of the
European Parliament's women's committee.
"I'm totally against such a ban, but the problem is that it has
overshadowed the fact that women's rights are improving there - slowly but
surely. Some of us EU members might do well to remember where we were when
we joined all those years back."
Murdered
Turkish women do enjoy greater freedoms than those in many other Muslim
nations. For decades they have had the right to vote, access to education,
the right to divorce and the right to abortion. Turks even elected a
female prime minister in 1993.
But by present EU standards, there is still a long way to go.
Violence is a concern frequently cited as one of the key problems by
Western non-governmental organisations. A recent report by Amnesty
International estimated that at least one third of Turkish women are
victims of domestic violence in which they are "hit, raped and, in some
cases, killed or forced to commit suicide".
Honour killings - murders of women accused of bringing shame on the family
by conducting illicit affairs - affect Turkish society as they do other
Muslim cultures. But, as elsewhere, the true figure for these deaths is
shrouded in mystery.
The reforms of the penal code took on some of these issues. If the row at
home and in Brussels over the inclusion of adultery is resolved and the
overhaul of the code approved, provocation will no longer be a defence in
such killings. The concept of "honour", a societal code, is to go.
It will also see that rape in marriage and sexual harassment are treated
as crimes. However, to the consternation of women's groups, while it will
limit rights to carry out virginity tests on women, it will not explicitly
ban them.
"The virginity testing is still an issue, a problem. But these are on the
whole significant reforms for Turkey," says Selma Acuner, of the Kader
women's rights group.
"Obviously nothing is going to change overnight - and there are still
cultural issues to get over, mentalities to change in what is still a very
patriarchal society.
"But we shouldn't underestimate what's going on here. The EU shouldn't
neglect what's been achieved in the course of the last few years. It will
be so unfair if it does."
Economy and Islam
Even before preliminary negotiations between Turkey and the EU were
underway, feminist groups successfully campaigned for the overhaul of the
civil code, eliminating the most anti-woman elements.
On 1 January 2002, Turkish women became the legal equal of men. They were
granted the right to an equal say in decisions regarding home and
children, while property and assets were to be divided equally in a
divorce.
They were also allowed to take jobs without obtaining their husband's
consent.
But it is all very recent, and only on paper. Legislation takes a long
time to compete with custom, and the figures still reflect a deeply
unequal society.
At 4.4%, the representation of women in Turkey's parliament may be higher
than in many Middle Eastern nations, but it is among the lowest in the
world.
The female employment rate is meanwhile the worst in Europe, exacerbated
by female illiteracy and poor education. One in every eight girls is out
of school, often pushed into arranged marriages at a young age.
"Some people say this is because of Islam," says secular women's
campaigner Turkan Saylan. "It isn't - it is because of poverty. Once the
country develops economically, I am absolutely certain that this will
change - that fathers will stop using Islam as an excuse to take their
daughters out of school.
"It is joining the EU that will speed up this process. But meanwhile it is
us here that have to stop Islam creeping through into legislation that
oppresses women - that's what we have got to fight."
