Being a Woman in Turkey by Zeynep Ceren Elçi

In Turkey, the number of women and teenage girls who face different kinds of obstacles  continuously increases. Every day we wake up to news about this specific topic. “Husband killed  his wife.” “Father raped his 13-year-old daughter.” Despite that these headlines are everywhere,  there is no improvement, on the contrary, the number of women who are subjected to violence is  increasing even more. However, violence is not the only issue. The inequality between women and  men in many areas, such as the workplace and education field, cannot be overlooked either.  Although women are indispensible to our society, they are discriminated against due to the bigotry  created by cultural and religious dynamics and stereotyping. 

Being a woman is one of the biggest challenges faced in Turkey. We live in a society where  women are restricted and threatened in many circumstances. 

We live in a society where a man can say “It’s not my fault she wore that skirt. She clearly  wanted and deserved it.” in the courtroom and not get a punishment because of his violent actions.  We live in a society where you may get raped being tied up with duct tape by someone who  comes to your home to fix your sink. (Fatma Nur Çelik, 21 years old)  

We live in a society, where you may get attacked and murdered by three men, just because  you are the last passenger left on the bus on your way home. (Özgecan Aslan, 20 years old)  We live in society, where you might get raped and murdered by your father's cousin, and  your body can be found in the forest. (Gizem Akdeniz, 6 years old)  

There is a majority in this country who think they can be aroused by whatever a woman  wears and therefore deserve to make themselves be sexually satisfied with her.  There are ministers in this country who declare “Unemployment is high because women are  looking for jobs.” who also say, “Let the raped women give birth, the state will take care of it.” We live in a society where it is women’s fault that men cannot handle themselves. It is  women who have to limit themselves even when they are simply choosing what to wear. 

Another obstacle women face in today’s society is the low chances of education  opportunities. Two-thirds of more than one billion adults who are illiterate and deprived of the right  to be educated are women. 

The isolation of women in the education field can be counted as an example of gender  discrimination. Society prioritizes men over women, because women’s responsibilities do not  involve working and doing a man’s job. A woman should give birth, raise children, cook, clean…  So the only career path, a woman can follow, is becoming a housewife and a mother. In Turkish  there is an expression: ‘‘Don’t interfere with a man’s work with dough in your hand.” This phrase  suggests that women should stay away from men's jobs and instead go and become housewives or  mothers, those are, women's affairs. 

The isolation of women is set to further back than it seems today. Religious and cultural  beliefs play big parts in this topic. From burying babies just because they turned out to be girls to  the discussion of the stereotypical female figure being broken down is debatable and maybe not  even possible. Today these traditions have been improved, however the prejudice and the  judgements towards females have remained similar. There is this phrase ‘‘You have a daughter, you  have a problem.” which shows the perspective of Turkish society on the female figure. The  discussion of this stereotypical female figure being broken down is debatable and maybe even not  possible. We can say this because this has been going on through years.  

What can Turkey do to solve this discriminative issues? Severe punishment should be  introduced in cases of violence and rape. The stereostypes and labels that have been given to  women should be removed. In order to obtain this, children should be educated about this issues. So  that an awareness would be raised in future generations. Every gender should have the exact same  education rights. Male and female colleagues should earn the same salary. In conclusion, one should  never be superior than the other.  

Turkey is a country where a woman can get physically and psychologically violated just  because she is a woman. The number of examples for this topic keeps growing every day. If we do  not educate the upcoming generations, these problems will keep on going throughout the different  societies. To end this stereotypical and discriminative bigotry we have to change our judging and  educating systems and create an environment that offers equal rights and opportunities for  everyone.