Women's Rights in Turkey by Law and Culture by Selin Karademir

Women’s rights in Turkey are by all means adequate on paper, but notably dismissed  when it comes to seeking justice for all the issues faced by women living in Turkey.  Unfortunately, the widespread problems include physical and sexual violence, domestic abuse,  forced child marriages and the discrimination against refugee women. In fact, this subject is  neglected by a great deal and equity is, sadly, so scarce that people lose more and more hope in  resolving these major challenges standing against us with each passing day. Especially after  Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention which was playing a prior role in conserving  women’s rights. We mustn’t let this stop us from defying the odds and, all things considered,  stop us from supporting and being the change, we wish to see. 

Firstly, we shall pay attention to the legislation and policies; Turkey has to follow the  international norms and standards. That said, court should absolutely never justify any sorts of  crimes committed, but they do, caused by the laws not being enough. Necessary precautions are  required, but aren’t taken. As a great deal of civil society organizations try and help women in  need, none have been brought to account as advocates for effective implementation of the  normative. They must be supported and laws must change otherwise we cannot achieve justice.  

Secondly, the harmful social norms and attitudes are inflamed by the provincial Turkish  culture and double standards are immensely harsh on women and girls. It is a mindset that makes  one question if they think if girls are even human, this is genuinely very discouraging to be of the  positive opinion about the future of Turkey as a teenage girl living here who would be  considered lucky actually but still experiences a lot of discrimination. Turkey is still a  developing country, sorrowfully, as with the notion that 14% Turk women aged 20-24 were  married before 18, (which is a large number considering the population) you can tell that instead  of a developed country, girls in Turkey are married at the age much younger than the suggested  instead of pursuing a career or simply just growing up in an environment which doesn’t have that  many responsibilities. Marriage that young is a potential cause for a femicide, girls don’t want it  and want a divorce but their husband doesn’t and it leads to that, or because she doesn’t know  how to stand on her own two feet she cannot get a divorce, also could be because others would 

simply never let it go and the society she lives in wouldn’t know her as a good woman, she could  just live the rest of her life staying silent to any sort of domestic abuse she experiences. This is  one of the worst things about the mindset I have explained, not to mention getting married so  young isn’t necessarily that compelling for bright girls with futures full of potential. This anti intellectual attitude isn’t only towards women, the uneducated of Turkey similarly bash different  minorities as well, whether in Turkey or not. It is so sad that the ideology of societal rules are  peer pressured on girls who want to dress differently, or people of non-Islamic religions  practicing it in public and so on. Another key thing about this is the way people reacted when the  Istanbul Convention was withdrawn from. 

The Istanbul Convention entered into force on 1 August 2014. It covered a lot of human  rights in fact and not just women’s. That said it goes completely against feminism to disqualify it  from Turkish law. It was withdrawn from on 20 March 2021. 

Provided that we can transform today’s Turkey into a much easier to live and be positive  about place, starting from ourselves there is nothing we cannot do. The poor justice system will  not resolve itself, therefore, we must stand together and work on it as a whole. Whether it’s  feminist civil society groups in Turkey that we support or letting others know about the problems and protesting against it we mustn’t stay silent. The girls and women of Turkey deserve justice  and equal rights, as any other would.