22.14 The European Commission 2007 report stated:
“Low participation of women in the labour market and access to education remain points of concern. Transposition of the EC Directives concerning discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation is incomplete. An effective and independent Equality Body needs to be established to promote non-discrimination and equal
treatment… Overall, Turkey has made limited progress on alignment with the acquis… Gender equality should be improved in all economic and social life. In general, there is a need to increase administrative capacity for the effective implementation of the acquis.” [71d] (p54-55)
22.15 The Council of Europe (COE) report at the 6th European Ministerial Conference
on Equality between Women and Men in 2006 noted that:
“In 2002 the 2002 elections, 24 women were elected to the parliament, thus representing 4.4% of 550 members of parliament… Women’s achievements in
the social and economic fields are not reflected accordingly in political sphere. Women’s representation in local government, which can be considered as an initial step in political participation, is also very low. According to the results of March 2004 local elections, 18 out of 3 225 mayors, 834 out of 34 477
members of municipality councils, and 58 out of 3 208 members of provincial general assemblies are women.” [29b]
22.16 The same COE report further stated that:
“According to the 2002 data of State Personnel Presidency, 31.9% of civil servants working under the Retirement Fund are women… There are now 12 female ambassadors and 23 female heads of civil administration (deputy governor and head of district). The rate of women within the total number of judges and public prosecutors is 18%... In 2005, one of the woman members of the Constitutional Court was elected as the President and another as the Vice President of the Court. The rate of women lawyers among all lawyers is 26%. The rate of women notary publics among all notaries is 15.5%. These data show that women’s status in Turkey is advancing in all fields of life. However, high level decision making positions are not equally shared yet.” [29b]
Return to contents Go to list of sources
MARRIAGE
22.17 The European Commission 2007 report further noted that “As concerns women's rights, amendments have extended the Law on Protection of the Family to all individuals in the family, including family members living separately. They have also abolished all fees for applications and administrative transactions related to court proceedings. The Turkish authorities have issued circulars to governorates, judges and prosecutors, with the aim of improving services to victims of violence… (p18) They have introduced medical
consultation or treatment in a health institution as a new measure that can be enforced by courts on violent family members. Further, the law stipulates that no fees will be charged for applications and execution of court decisions alleviating, thereby, the financial burden of legal proceedings for victims.” [71d] (p 62)
22.18 The USSD 2005 report noted that:
“Child marriage occurred. The legal age of marriage in the country is 18 for both boys and girls. A judge can authorise a marriage at age 17 under ‘extraordinary circumstances’; the law requires judges to consult with parents or guardians before making such a decision. However, children as young as 12 were at times married in unofficial religious ceremonies. Families sometimes engaged in ‘cradle arrangements,’ agreeing that their newborn children would marry at a later date, well before reaching the legal age. Women’s rights activists say underage marriage has become less common in the country in recent years, but is still practiced in rural, poverty-stricken regions. Activists maintained that girls who married below the legal age often had children shortly thereafter and suffered physical and psychological trauma as a result. Arranged marriages
have been cited as a cause of suicides among girls, particularly in the southeast.” [5b] (Section 5)
Forced Marriages
22.19 As noted in a Country of Origin Research of the Canada Immigration and Refugee Board, Ottawa dated 28 September 2004 entitled Turkey: Forced marriage in Turkey; outcome when a woman refuses to marry the designated man; outcome when a woman elopes with another man; attitude of state and availability of state protection (July 2001 -September 2004), it noted that:
“Although identified as a significant step in progress towards gender equality, the revised Civil Code is not perceived as a panacea to end gender
discrimination and violations of women's rights in a country where historically customs and religious practices have controlled the lives of women and have accorded male family members the rights to make decisions, including those about forced or early marriages, concerning the lives of female family members. A 2004 Amnesty International (AI) report on violence against women in Turkey indicates the following distinction between forced and arranged marriages, forced marriage, in contrast to arranged marriage, has been described as 'any marriage conducted without the valid consent of both parties and [which] may involve coercion, mental abuse, emotional blackmail, and intense family or social pressure. In the most extreme cases, it may also involve physical
violence, abuse, abduction, detention, and murder of the individual concerned.”
[7a]
22.20 The Country of Origin Research of the Canada Immigration and Refugee Board, Ottawa further stated that:
“Young girls living in rural areas, specifically in eastern Anatolia, face difficulties, in trying to oppose forced marriage since under tribal custom they are
considered the property of either their father before marriage or by their
husband afterwards and if they resist social pressure from the community, ‘they do so at their peril’. Similarly, according to one of the leaders of WWHR, rural women are likely to be marginalized in the context of changes induced by the new Civil Code, including the raising of the legal age for marriage to 18, as they ‘must contend with traditions and customs, [including underage marriage] that have little to do with the legislative revisions their urban sisters enjoy’.” [7a]
22.21 The Country of Origin Research of the Canada Immigration and Refugee Board, Ottawa also noted that:
“However, an article published by the London-based non-governmental organization Panos Institute in January 2002, indicated that child marriage did not exist only in Turkey's conservative heartland. The same article reported the story of a school in the Europeanised west of the country where more than 20 girls aged between 10 and 13 had been married off in exchange for bride price that took place just after the new Civil Code took effect. Middle East
International (MEI) reported in January 2002 that many arrests were made by the authorities of the Western province of Aydin after finding that a large group
of girls between ages 10 and 14 were being deprived of schooling due to forced early marriages (11 Jan. 2002).” [7a]
Return to contents Go to list of sources