"The Profile of Women in Turkey"
by Nilüfer Narli, Turkey

1. Introduction
The aim of the paper is to present a profile of women in Turkey. It includes: marriage patterns and reproductive activities; the level of formal education received by women and the trend of female employment; the level of female political participation; and various forms of violence against women and women’s response to violence. Moreover, it covers the response of the state and the NGOs to the gender equality and the all types of violence against women. This profile is significant in gaining insight into the gender issues and in understanding the main problems of women in Turkey.

2. Main Indicators on Women
According to 1997 Census, conducted in 1997, the population was 62,061,252. Despite the fact that females constitute almost fifty per cent of the population, their share in the decision-making process in the family and in the public domain is smaller than that of males. Their level of gaining access to educational and professional opportunities is lower too. This can be seen below.

Marriage, Divorce and Reproductive Activities
Women's control over their bodies and the decisions concerning their lives and their sexual and their reproductive activities are largely curtailed by tradition and custom, particularly in the rural areas. For example, Turkey's Population and Health Survey of 1993 revealed that women's marital choice was largely limited in Turkey. The data showed that 67.8 per cent of the married women in the age group of 15-49 years reported that their parents made the decision on their marriage and the spouse. In rural Turkey, this rate went up to 72.0 per cent, while it was 65.5 per cent in the urban areas. Only 25.9 per cent in Turkey made the decision themselves (19.3 per cent rural women and 29.5 per cent urban women) and the rest (6.3 per cent) were married by the decision taken by someone other than themselves and their parents. Those who made the decision themselves often obtained the approval of the family (95.4 per cent in Turkey total; 92.2 per cent in the urban areas and 96.0 per cent in the rural milieu).¹  It is a common observation that the couple's parents do not only have a voice in the choice of the spouse, but also have an influence in women's reproductive activities after the marriage (e.g., the number of the children and timing of their delivery).

The traditional values and customs do not only influence the choice of the spouse, but also affect other dimensions of the marriage including the payment of dowry for the bride and the marriage arrangement among the relatives. For example, purchasing dowry was practiced in the marriage of a large number of women (28.6 per cent in Turkey total in the mid-1990s; 21.9 per cent urban women and 41.0 per cent rural women).²  Secondly, many of them were married to their relatives (22.6 per cent in Turkey total; 20.4 per cent urban women and 26.5 per cent rural women), as it had been customary in the past. Also, not only the customary but also the religious norms are honored in the marriage. An imam's symbolic religious blessing of the civil marriage was found to be important for the majority (89.0 percent) of the married women in 1993.³ 

Nevertheless, the traditional pattern of marriage has been changing as a response to the changes including the greater female participation in labor force, increased number of females in the institutions of higher education, and their increased access to universal information. For example, the tradition of marrying at the age of puberty faded away. The marriage age rose to 22 for the females and 25.9 for the males in 1994. Moreover, many more women began to go court for divorce.⁴  Amongst the reasons for women getting divorce, the most frequently given ones are exposures to domestic violence, extra-marital relations of the husband, the use of alcohol by the husband, and the intervention of the mother-in-law in the family affairs.⁵ 

The division of labor in the home is very traditional in the sense that male participation in the housework including cooking, cleaning and childcare is almost nil (not more than two per cent), regardless of women’s work outside the home. However, the male share in making of the budget is larger. In 1993, a survey on the married women in the age group of 15-49 years old showed that for 54.1 per cent of the families, the husband had a full power over making the budget. This figure was 50.4 percent for the families where both man and woman worked; and 55.0 per cent for the families the wife was a housewife.⁶ 

The traditionally rewarded role as a mother is important for many women. In 1989 the total number of ever-married female population (in the age group of 15-49 years old) was 14, 010, 461 and the total number of children ever-born alive were 55, 756,138. This means that the average number of children per woman was 3.98 in 1989.⁷  However, it varied with a number of factors: the level of formal education obtained by the women that is also found to be an important factor in shaping female attitudes towards their bodies; the level of labor force participation; regional customary practices and values, and residence in urban or rural area. Consider that 5,531,779 illiterate women had 30,870, 492 children in 1989 (which meant 5.58 children per woman). In contrast, 8,478, 682 literate women had 24,885,646 children (which meant 2.94 children per woman with university degree had 1.47 children (239,729 college educated women with 353,891 children).⁸  While, the average number of children per woman was 3.98 in Turkey total; it was 3.01 for the urban woman and 4.60 for the rural woman. Parallel to this, a female agricultural worker had 4.83 children, but a working woman employed in modern formal sector had 2.23 children in 1989. Regional differences are significant in the number of living children per woman too. A woman in the western Turkey had 3.31 children (3.01 in the urban and 3.95 in the rural areas); a woman from the central Anatolia had 4.04 children (3.69 in the urban and 4.44 in the rural); however, a woman from the Eastern provinces had 5.25 children (4.87 in the urban and 5.43 in the rural).⁹  In some provinces (e.g., Diyarbak?r, Sanl?urfa, Bitlis, Sirnak, Mus) in this region the number of children per woman ranged from five to seven.¹⁰ The infant mortality rate was still high according to the statistical indicators of 1993. It was 52.6 %o in Turkey total with 44 %o in the urban milieu and 65.4 %o in the rural areas.¹¹ 

There have been improvements in the health care services provided to the mother and the child, but these are far from meeting the needs. This is why the infant mortality rate is still high in Turkey. More than half (62.3 per cent) of the pregnant women received health care at least once during their pregnancy (46.8 per cent women from a medical doctor and 15.5 per cent of them from a nurse) in 1993. The number of women receiving health care from a medical doctor was higher in the urban areas (57.7 per cent) than that in the rural areas (30.6 per cent).¹²  The number of women receiving medical care before and after the pregnancy and the proportion of delivery in a hospital has increased through time.

Nevertheless, this varies with the level of formal education obtained by women, showing that education affect the way women treat their bodies. For example, only 30.4 per cent of the illiterate women, but 96.6 per cent of the university graduate women delivered their baby in a hospital in 1989. While 46.3 percent of the illiterate women delivered their child at home without any assistance, this figure was 3.8 per cent for the middle school graduates; and none of the high school and university graduate woman delivered a child at home without any assistance.¹³  Recognising the problem of limited access to health care in the pre and post-pregnancy period, the Ministry of Health started a program titled, "Saving the Mothers" with an aim of extending the health care services to a larger number of women, particularly those in the disadvantaged social strata.

The use of contraceptive has increased throughout time as the contraceptive devices have become more available, and as women have obtained higher level of education and an increased level of access to universal information. In 1993, more than half (62.6 per cent) of the married women in the age group of 15-49 years old reported utilisation of contraceptive methods including the traditional (28.1 per cent) and modern ones (34.5 per cent), but 37.4 per cent did not use any type of method (33.8 per cent urban women and 43.9 per cent rural women). The use of contraceptive was higher for the urban women (66.2 per cent) than that for the rural women (56.1 per cent). The more preferred contraceptive methods were the modern ones including pills, IUD, condom and others (34.5 per cent in Turkey total; 38.9 per cent in the urban and 26.8 per cent in the rural areas).¹⁴  The use of the traditional methods including withdrawal and calendar methods was almost equally utilised by both the urban women (27.3 per cent) and the rural women (29.3 per cent) in 1993.¹⁵ 

Education
In 1990 only 9.46 percent of the males, but 29.18 per cent of the females were illiterate despite the fact that five-year elementary education was compulsory since the proclamation of Republic in 1923. Nevertheless, in 1980 the proportion of illiterate females (56.25 per cent) had been much higher than those in 1990.¹⁶  The illiteracy rate varies with the age group: the younger the person, the higher the rate of literacy.¹⁷  However, this is more applicable to the male population.¹⁸  The literacy rate is also related to other variables: rural or urban residence, regional location and migration. In the rural areas the female illiteracy rate is much higher than that in the urban areas. It is higher amongst the women who migrated to city from a rural milieu.¹⁹  The illiteracy rate is also higher in the eastern and southeastern provinces where it was 42.2 per cent in 1990, while it was 22.3 per cent in the Western Turkey.²⁰ 

The enrolment ratio also varies with gender, not much at the primary level. However, at the secondary level the gender difference in the enrolment rate becomes more discernible, yet it has narrowed through time. In 1991-1992-education term, the enrolment rate at the primary level was 85.38 per cent for girls and 91.1 for boys. At the secondary level, in 1991-1992 education term, in the middle school the enrolment rate was 47.74 per cent for girls and 71.26 per cent for boys. In the high school it was 31.06 for girls and 47.29 per cent for boys.²¹ In 1994-1995 education term in the middle school the rate was 54.5 per cent for the girls and 76 per cent for the boys; in the high school it was 39.5 per cent for the girls and 59 percent for the boys.²² The lower level of female enrolment in the secondary education is related to three interrelated factors: discrimination against the girl child when the family provides educational opportunities to the children, poverty and child labor.²³ The economically disadvantaged families²⁴ and those with more than four children²⁵ always give priority to the education of the male child. Families more often utilize the girl child’s labor outside the home as well as in the economic activities conducted in the house. In addition to them, the gild child assumes housework.²⁶ 

At the tertiary level of education there was a significant increase in the female enrolment rate. However, in 1990-1991 academic term, it was still 8.9 percent for the females, but 16.5 percent for the males; the same figures rose to 13.8 percent for the females and to 21.3 percent for the males in the 1994-1995 academic term.²⁷ 

The discrepancy between the levels of formal education obtained by the females and males is mainly the result of poverty and discrimination against the girl child because of "harmful" traditional practices and favoring the education of the boys, who would take care of the family in their old ages, when the family allocates its limited resources. The recent statistical data show one million children in the age group of 12-14 years are out of school, and 785.000 of them are females.²⁸  
 
Employment
In Turkey, while the population grows, the rate of economic growth markedly decelerates during the 1990s, and in turn, creates unemployment problem and fall in real wages. This particularly hit the female labor force whose supply was found to be growing 1.60 percent annually in the mid-1990s. The labor force demand is behind the labor force supply for many young men and women in Turkey. As a result, women's labor has become increasingly concentrated in the informal, non-registered economy and there has been a significant and steady decline in the rates of the female labor force participation (as elaborated below), and higher level of female unemployment.²⁹ 

The mechanization of agriculture in Turkey since the 1950s has prompted a massive rural-to-urban migration. In the 1960s and 1970s, the relatively high growth in industry was able to absorb this growing urban labor force and it provided employment for an increasing number of urban women. The number of women in the urban labor force grew by 1.1 per cent per year, reaching 12.8 per cent of the non-agricultural labor force by 1980.³⁰  However, in the 1980s, industrial growth slowed, and the continuing migration from rural to urban areas produced an increase in the urban labor market that the formal sector could not absorb.

Migration to the cities -- from the troubled East and Southeast regions and from the Black Sea region where the shortage of land compels people to migrate -- has an impact on the female labor force participation. The majority of the migrating women are not prepared for the formal labor market in terms of language, formal education and skill training. As the economy became increasingly unable to offer urban employment in regular salaried jobs, especially to those who lacked needed skills; women began to turn to micro enterprises as a possible means to earn a living. The majority of these women have found their places in the urban informal economy. Declining rural employment for women and under-reporting of the urban informal sector has resulted in an apparent drop in women's labor force participation from 72.0 per cent in 1955 to less than 42.8 per cent in 1990.³¹  The same figure was much lower in the late 1990s, as given below.

Participation in formal labor force decreased in the early 1990s for men and women. For example, male labor force decreased from 76.5 per cent in 1988 to 71.2 per cent in 1994; and female labor force participation declined from 43.9 per cent in 1988 to 31.9 per cent in 1994,³² and the same figure for 1998 was 27.9 percent.³³ Therefore, rural-urban migration and urbanization had negative consequences for the educationally and professionally disadvantaged from the lower social classes. However, women at the highest echelons of society have made great progress. For example, the percentages of doctors and lawyers who are women in Turkey are 15% and 18.7%, respectively.

The profile of the female labor force shows that many women have been exploited. According to the Household Labor Force Survey (1996 April), 21,376, 000 people were employed: 14,827,000 males and 6,550,000 females.³⁴ Out of a total number of 6,550,000 employed females, 70 percent (4,585, 000) of them were unpaid family workers; 18.93 percent (1,240, 000) were regular employees; 3.3 percent (221,000) were casual employees; 0.7 percent (46,000) were employers; and 7.0 percent (458, 000) were self-employed whose proportion was 8.8³⁵ per cent in 1998. The overwhelming majority of the unpaid family workers were employed in the agriculture and animal husbandry occupational category (4,433,000 female agricultural and animal husbandry workers out of a total number of 4,585,000 female unpaid family workers).³⁶ 

Despite the decline in women's participation in formal economy, the export led growth paradigm has enhanced the small and medium scale enterprise (SME) development and brought positive consequences for women, favoring women's entrepreneurship in Turkey. Female entrepreneurship (in terms of business activities as both employers and self-employed persons) increased significantly from 5.9 per cent of the economically active female population in 1990 to 11.1 per cent in 1994.³⁷ But it registered a slight decline to 7.0 percent in 1996 and it was 8.8 percent in 1998 (as given above), due to slow down of economy.³⁸  Their number is more likely to grow faster if they are given support in the form of credit allocation of tax reduction and education. The Prime Ministry Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women has started a number project to provide technical education and assistance with an aim of encouraging the self-employed and the employer females. Credit policies have provided incentives to women entrepreneurs. Furthermore, training programs for increasing women's financial literacy levels have been systematized in the frame work of the National Program for the Enhancement of Women's Integration in Development that was launched in 1993 by the Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women. It was financed jointly by the Government of Turkey and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to address the disparity between women's contribution to productivity and their share of developmental benefits

Educationally and professionally qualified from the upper echelons are largely represented in the public (where women occupy 27.5 percent of middle to upper level public management cadres)³⁹ and private sector, and women in small and medium size enterprises have been benefiting from the credits and advancing. The major problem of female labor force participation is in the informal economy. The growth of the informal sector was the result of the economic policies that were geared towards debt reduction. This directly or indirectly supported the informal sector. These policies rested on increasing the competitiveness of the export industries through shifting the production mechanism to labor intensive operations of small to medium scale sub contracting arrangements. The increased shift of production to the labor intensive informal sector has had the following consequences: (1) women have begun to enter the labor force at increasingly younger ages and some even at childhood; (2) women have been employed at substandard labor conditions with no social security: (3) due to low wages and difficult labor conditions in general, and due to pressures of household production (under the increasingly prevalent household production subcontract arrangements), women's recreational and sleep times have been reduced drastically.

Statistics on women in the informal sector are not directly complied or reported by any statistical source in Turkey. There is under-reporting of female informal sector activities, either because male heads of household provides the responses or because women themselves do not regard their home-based income generating activities as work. For example, my survey study on the socio-economic characteristics of Balat-Fener in Fatih district of Istanbul showed that the latter is the case. During the fieldwork ⁴⁰ in September-October 1997, many women were observed doing various types of handicraft to sell. However, when one asked them whether they work or not their answer, was, "no".

Changes in the economic policies have had implication for female labor force participation. Since from the second half of the 1970s, Turkey has gone through changes in its economic policies in the course of reforms. In the late 1970s it abandoned its import substitution industrialization policies in favor of export led growth policies to overcome the debt crisis and the accompanying budget deficit and high inflation rates. In 1980, the first Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs)⁴¹ were implemented. Its consequent deregulation of the money market, followed by deregulation in the labor, goods and services markets and wage limitations impacted, albeit indirectly, women's equal participation in the economic and social spheres. Women's labor concentration in the free trade zone multinational corporate operations - as in the SAP experiences of South Asia and South America - did not take place in Turkey. Instead, women's labor has become increasingly concentrated in the informal economy and the female participation in formal economy has progressively declined in the 1990s.

The falls in income and consequently living standards, compel women to take on marginal jobs to supplement the falling earnings. Falling income levels also compel women to spend more time on household production activities - spending more time in the market to buy cheaper goods. Several studies indicate a negative correlation between income level and time spent on household production. Income losses due to sustained high inflation have the impact of increasing poor women's household labor. While not specifically treated in any empirical study, it is also argued that women's nutritional intake levels are declining as women prioritize the nutritional intake of other family members (especially of their children) and give up on their own nutritional needs to compensate for the low purchasing power.

Although the share of the agricultural sector in the national economy continues to shrink⁴², this sector is still the largest employer of women. Women in this sector often work as unpaid family workers. Nevertheless, agricultural work has empowered women by increasing their participation in decision-making processes at the village context. However, increasing levels of urbanization (internal migration) and increased urban unemployment of women have led to marginalization of women and their isolation from decision-making mechanism in the city.

Female-Head Households
The proportion of the female head households was 7.9 per cent in 1994. This figure was same in the urban (7.9 per cent) and in the rural areas (8.0 per cent). There is an income gap between the female and male-headed households. The income level of the male-households was twice the income level of female- headed households in 1994. The difference was much higher in the rural areas where the income of the female-head households was 68 per cent of the total income obtained by the male-head households; while it was 46.4 per cent of the total income gathered by the male-head households in the urban areas.⁴³ According to the income distribution survey conducted by the State Institute of Statistics in 1994, income distribution disparities are increasingly widening and bearing negative effects on women and children. The largest income distribution disparity is between male-headed households and female headed households.

Women and children, and particularly the girl child are clearly most affected by the income distribution disparities. As a result, the girl child is discriminated when the family has to make a choice for the education of the children (as mentioned above) and her labor is exploited. Many children in the female head households need to work to contribute to the budget. The study on the working children (6-14 years old) showed that 55.1 per cent of them came from the households headed by the females in 1994.⁴⁴ The girl child's contribution to the household is more vital than that of the boy child. A great majority (75.0 per cent) of the working female children gave their total income to the family, while only 57.2 per cent of the male children made such a sacrifice for the family in 1994.⁴⁵ 

3. Political Participation
The Ottoman system did not provide women with any mechanism of political participation and demanding their human rights. It was the swift culmination of a process that started under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, especially in the second half of the 19th century after the Tanzimat Movement. In accordance with the Sultan's orders in 1847, slavery and the practice of owning concubines was prohibited. In 1857 new laws gave male and female children equal rights in regard to rights of inheritance. The first midwifery school was inaugurated in 1842, and then junior high schools for girls were set up in 1858. Trade schools in 1863 and teachers' training schools in 1870 began giving education to the girls. The first institute of higher learning for girls commenced in 1910.

Therefore the Tanzimat Decree (1839) -- a kind of constitution which contained provisions that brought equality before the law and paved the way for constitutionalism, secular education, and scientific advancement -- had significant implications for the improvements in the status of women. The idea of educating women and ameliorating their position was discussed by the Young Ottomans, who were able circulate their ideas through increased number of publications at the end of the 19th century. As the publication grew, a number of women journals raised the political consciousness of the Ottoman women. For example, Terakki Muhaderat, published in 1868 was the first women's newspaper that gave information on the feminist movements in the West; Women's World, published between 1913 and 1921, had a clear feminist structure, and it suggested reforms to solve the women's problems; Hanumlara Mahsus Gazete ("Journal for Women"), published between 1859 and 1908 played an important role in the history of the women's movement in Turkey since it was the first to have a predominantly female staff, including printers, reporters and editors. The magazine called on women to act in solidarity in order to gain political rights. Women did not only publish their ideas advocating the provision of liberties to women, they also took action in order to be represented in the public domain. Before the War of Independence in which women played a significant role, women made a contribution to the Young Turk Revolution of 1908⁴⁶, which restored constitutional government during the Ottoman period. After Independence (1922)⁴⁷, a group of educated women took a radical step and formed a political party (Kad?nlar Halk F?rkas?) in June 1923 with an aim of demanding political rights and contesting for elections. Later, it was dissolved and transformed itself into an association, the Union of Turkish Women (Türk Kad?nlar Birli?i). It has been one of the influential women organizations since then.⁴⁸ 

Ataturk's reforms, which aimed at elevating the Turkish people to the level of contemporary civilization, identified as that of the West, brought about political and economic rights to women.⁴⁹ Turkey largely eliminated the practices of sexual segregation and the obstacles of political participation and discrimination with the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924; with the adoption of secularism reinforced by the constitutional law; by replacing the Shariah law with a new civil code, adapted from the Swiss Code, in 1926. The new civil code made amelioration in the position of women in the family. Then, in 1934 women were granted political rights that gave them an opportunity to be represented in the public domain as equal partners. Women's right advanced as result of the secularization with the Ataturk's reforms that separated the state and religion by abolishing the Sultanate and the Caliphate in 1924 and the other Islamic institutions (e.g., the madrases, Shariah Courts, religious orders); by changing of script from Arabic to Latin; and more significantly by declaring the Turkish Republic as a "secular state" by a constitutional amendment in 1937. Despite the constitutional separation of the state and religion, the state has regulated the religious affairs through the Directorate of Religious Affairs that was established in 1924. The secularization reforms did not only alter the conduct of public affairs, but they also restructured the social life and life styles. For example, sexual segregation was discouraged; female head covering was banned in the public offices and in the institutions of education.

Soon after obtaining the political rights, women were represented in the parliament. The proportion of women members of the parliament was 4.6 percent in 1935. Female parliamentary representation decreased to 2.0 percent in 1946 when Turkey transited to a multi-party system. Then in 1960 it dropped to 0.6 percent. In 1991 it was 1.8 percent.⁵⁰ The 1995 general elections resulted in the election of 13 women out of 550 members of parliament. During the period of 1994-1999 the female participation in the parliament was 2.6 per cent, their participation in the local governments was around one percent⁵¹. The 1999 general and local elections held on the same day (April 18) led to the increase in the female representation both in the parliament and in the local governments. Their number in the parliament rose to 23 and their representation in the local governments increased too.

In Turkey female participation in the political parties and interest groups are not low.⁵² The level of female participation in grass-roots politics is high, but they are under-represented in leadership positions, particularly in the Islamist and ultra-nationalist parties. Female participation in high level bureaucratic positions⁵³, corporatist institutions, and in the judiciary has been increasing, albeit slowly in recent times.

While women's participation in formal politics is low, they have been active in the various political movements. They have played a significant, if unquantified, part in less conventional political activities: ad hoc actions, community actions, industrial action, revolutionary, nationalist and even “terrorist” politics from the mid-1960s. However, they have often been excluded from the decision making process.

What are the factors that count for the lower level of female political participation in Turkey? The statistical data on the marriage and reproduction trends, the level of female education and the patterns of female employment shows that the following factors are advanced: (I) the socio-economic disparity between men and women⁵⁴, that is the gap between the level of formal education received by the males and the females, the lower level of female participation in formal economy and in the modern sectors and the income discrepancy between the men and women; (ii) the male dominated feudal family structure (particularly in the eastern and south-eastern provinces); (ii) traditional values reinforcing the male dominance that have been internalized through primary and secondary socialization; and (iv) the customs and practices that limit women's control over their sexual and reproductive rights.

There are civil initiatives to increase the women participation in politics and in the parliament. However, they have not been able to develop effective lobbying strategies due to the lack of experience and expertise. Yet they have created a public debate on the under-representation of women in the parliament.

4. Violence Against Women and Responses
Women suffer from various forms of violence in Turkey: forced virginity exams, honor killing, rape and sexual assault, and domestic violence. Experiences of forced virginity exams by schoolgirls and adult women have been frequently reported in the press. In 1993, Human Rights Watch investigated the prevalence of forced virginity control exams and the role of the institutions in conducting or tolerating such exams.⁵⁵  At the roots of the imposition of virginity control exams, whether at the hands of the state or private individual, is the presumption that female virginity is a legitimate interest of the family, the community and, ultimately the state. Traditionally, a damaged reputation virtually ends any possibility of marriage. In addition, any physical rupture of the hymen, regardless of its connection to sexual activity, is considered to be an evidence of lost virginity. This can also reduce the chances of marriage that has been the sole avenue for a dependent woman to gain social status and to find a provider. This is why the behavior of an unmarried woman is guarded closely in order to protect her from even the suggestion of inappropriate sexual activity.

Until the end of 1980s when the women's movement became more assertive and independent of the state, the women NGOs were not very vocal in opposing the forced virginity exams. Thereafter, women magazines have started making critical remarks on such exams, and the NGOs have begun campaigns to stop this practice.

Honor killing, which has no basis in law, is murdering a female on the ground that she had an inappropriate sexual relationship and, therefore damaged the family honor. It is not a seldom practice, particularly in the Southeast and East. The chief public prosecutor of ?anl?urfa (a province in the Southeast), Hüseyin Fidan, said, "Every two or three months, a case like this which ends in death comes to me".⁵⁶ The rationale lies in the fact that the members of the family link family honor to the maintenance of female chastity. Therefore, an actual illegitimate sexual relationship or any conduct of behavior creating a doubt about such a happening could spoil the family honor. Honor killing is more frequently practiced in the East and Southeast where the family structure is feudal and where the rate of female literacy and women’s participation in modern economic activities are much lower than that in other regions. There is another reason explaining why honor killing is more common in these regions: a young girl is often a commodity for the parents, because her bride price (ba?l?k paras?) can go up to five to ten billion TL ($ 20,300 to $ 40,600 in 1998) or its equivalent in goods. When there is a doubt over a young girl's chastity, she has no economic value to the family anymore. Then the family feels bitter over the economic lost and, at the same time, they are put under the community pressure demanding them to terminate the life of the "stained" daughter. In a feudal traditional environment where mechanical solidarity codes social relations, the community encourages severe punishment of any action that is considered to be the violation of the collective moral. Given this background, the family asks one of the male children or teenager cousins, who is below 18 years old, to kill the stained female, who allegedly violated the established mores. The penalty for killing an immediate blood relative on purpose is life sentence under the law. However, the Criminal Code reduces the penalty for murder, if it is committed on witnessing an adulterous act or on suspicion of an illicit liaison on the ground that it has been caused by "heavy provocation" (Turkish Criminal Code, Article 59). The sentence is reduced to an eighth of its severity. It can be further reduced when the age of the convict is below 18 years old. Moreover, in the cases of honor killings, the judges in the region take the traditional values and practices and the community pressure into consideration when they make the judgement. They consider the regional custom ("töre") a mitigating factor and reduce the sentence. For example, in the case of Sevda Gök's (16 years old) honor killing, the murderer, her 14-years old cousin, was given only two years by the Court in ?anl?urfa on April 5, 1996.

Sexual violence in the form of rape is widespread in Turkey. In 1990, 20,257 males were taken to court and accused of heinous crimes including rape. Their number was 18,705 in 1994.⁵⁷ They were the reported cases. However, many women do not report when they are raped because they are ashamed of it, they are afraid of community pressure, and they often think that it is their fault.

Women NGOs have been actively campaigning to stop violence against women in all its forms and they have demanded the government to take more effective measures and specific action to combat these violations of women's human rights. They have also tried to raise the level of consciousness amongst the women and to educate them so that they could understand the legal mechanism to protect themselves against violence. The institutes for Women Studies, which function at several universities, provide intellectual support for the activities of the women NGOs that campaign to stop all types of violence against women.

Domestic Violence
There are conflicting figures on the proportion of the women who became the victims of domestic violence in all its forms: humiliation, verbal abuse, battery, physical intimidation, deprivation and marital rape. In 1990 several males (552) were accused of "mistreating” the family members, meaning suffering from constant verbal abuse, physical violence and intimidation in the home.⁵⁸  Studies⁵⁹  show that the figures on the level of exposure to domestic violence range from 22 percent to 75 percent. They also show that many women (50.1 percent) justify husband’s use of violence against a wife if she “deserves” it. There are variations in the level justifying the wife battery with the level of education and the urbanization. A large proportion (71.4 percent) of the rural women, but only 38.2 percent of the urban women approved husband’s beating.⁶⁰ 

Responses to Domestic Violence: Women NGOs and Governments
In April 1987, a judge, Mustafa Durmu?, in Çank?r? quoted a proverb to justify the battery of the wife by saying. " Kad?n?n s?rt?ndan sopay?, karn?ndan s?pay? eksik etme" ("Keep beating a woman and keep making her pregnant").⁶¹  As a response, thousands of women organised a big demonstration entitled, "Solidarity Against Beating Women" on May 17, 1987. Then the women NGOs launched a nation-wide campaign. They conducted campaigns titled, "No to Sexual Abuse" in 1989, highlighting the situation in Turkey where many women were the victims of sexual attacks and felt that they had insufficient legal protective measures. The next year a large number of women attended protests against the abolition of the law making it illegal for person to rape a prostitute in front of a brothel house. The amendment to the law then was cancelled by the parliament as result of the women NGOs' pressure on the government.

The press and the public consciousness became more sensitive to the issue of domestic violence as result of the nation-wide discussions on the issue by women NGOs and by the Women's Problems Research Center at Istanbul University, founded in 1990.

Women NGOs took one more step to protect women against violence with the foundation of the Purple Roof Women Shelter (Mor Çat?) in 1990 in Istanbul. The foundation served women by offering legal and psychological help as well as lodging. Then Women Solidarity Foundation in Ankara was founded in 1991 to combat domestic violence and all types of violence against women, and in 1995 they opened a shelter.⁶² In 1998 there were 11 shelters and six guidance centers⁶³ in the big cities.

Various feminist groups and NGOs have also made use of every occasion like the Women's Day celebrations to raise the issue of violence against women. Moreover, the women NGOs and the academicians in the field of Women Studies lobbied for a bill to protect women against domestic violence. Finally, the bill bringing protective orders against domestic violence was passed in the Turkish Parliament despite the opposition of the now defunct Islamist Welfare Party on January 17, 1998.⁶⁴ With the adoption of the Law for the protection of the Family, the issue domestic violence was addressed for the first time in Turkey. The law grants third partied the right to file complaints of domestic violence and makes it possible for judges to place restraining orders against the family member who has used violence in the home, thereby ensuring that the perpetrator is kept away from the victims.⁶⁵ 

5. Gender Studies in Turkey
Women's Studies Programs and Research Centers (currently 13 women studies and research centers and programs exist) established at the national universities, including the Middle East Technical University, Istanbul University, Marmara University, Ankara University, Cukurova University and others. They function as institutions of research. They do not only contribute to gender studies, they also function as follow-up mechanisms since they have been instrumental in organizing seminars and activities on follow up to the Beijing Conference, yielding to a substantial number of articles and documents.

6. Conclusion
Despite the positive impact of the political modernization on the women's rights and on the women's participation in the modern economic sector and political institutions, women are still very much behind the men. Women's share in decision-making in the private and public domain is limited, but progressively increasing. It is limited because male dominance is accepted and internalized by many men and women in Turkey. The traditional perception that men are powerful and in charge of women is one of the important cultural factors that fosters domestic violence and women's unresponsiveness to it. Financial difficulties in a country like Turkey, where the gap between the rich and the poor have been widened since the mid-1980s, is a factor that creates pressure on the family and on the men, the provider. The feeling of deprivation and the economic frustration mitigate men to use violence against the wife and the children. The economic hardship disables women to leave home and search for a solution. The economically disadvantaged women cannot leave the home, as they are not capable of starting a new life. Another factor, a psychological one that motivates men to use violence, is the feeling of jealousy and the anxiety over the likelihood of wife's extra-marital relations.

Factors that hinder gender equality and low level of female participation in politics are categorized as follows.
 

Political Factors:
masculine model of politics,
lack of party support,
limited co-operation with women's organizations some of which that are divided over secularist-Islamist antagonism and personal conflicts,
education and training,
electoral system.

Socio-Economic Obstacles:
the feminization of poverty and unemployment,
the dual burden.

Ideological and Psycho-social Hindrances:
traditional roles,
harmful tradition and customary practices,
lack of confidence,
the perception of politics as "dirty",
the role of mass media.

The solution lies in the empowerment of women by means of (i) increasing the female political participation and their share in the formal decision making process; (ii) enhancing the level of female participation in economic activities; and (iii) raising female consciousness through education and re-socialization programs. Moreover, creating and sustaining the social institutions that could provide shelter and legal aid to battered women is significant in the reduction of violence against women. The state and NGOs need to co-operate to increase their number.

The state has taken steps to improve the status of women and protect them against all types of discrimination and violence. Since from the foundation of the Republic, government policies have been in favor of promoting gender equality. Particularly from the mid-1980s onwards, partly as a response to increased female voice in the public and lobbying for amelioration in the status of women, the state has taken significant steps to improve women's human rights and insure gender equality. Turkey signed CEDAW (Convention to Eliminate all types of Discrimination Against Women) in 1985 and it lifted in July 1999 reservations⁶⁶ against the Convention. The reservations were made on the grounds that it contradicted the provision of the Turkish Civil Code that governs marriage and family relations. There have been several legal arrangements in the Civic Code, Penalty Law and Income Tax Law with an aim of eliminating discrimination against women in the frame of CEDAW (see APPENDIX).

Moreover, state has created new institutions⁶⁷ to provide institutional support to the empowerment of women and brought new legal arrangement to eliminate all types of discrimination against women. An individual woman should be aware of the state’s initiatives to enhance the status of women and she needs to learn her legal rights and how she would utilize the legal measures to protect herself against abuse and violence. This requires education, economic independence and democratic political environment where an individual woman would be able sustain and defend herself.
 

APPENDIX

CEDAW Committee Reports ⁶⁸
The Committee viewed positively a number of developments in Turkey, including: the draft law to amend the various articles of the Civil Code pertaining to family law, which will allow Turkey to withdraw its reservations; the government's intention to revise the Citizenship Law; the decision of the government to conclude bilateral agreements with other countries that would permit Turkish citizens, women and men alike, to keep their citizenship upon marriage to a foreign national; the legal guarantees of the equal right of girls and boys to free education and training; the recommendation of the 15th National Council of Education to increase the compulsory and uninterrupted primary education to eight years; its decision to develop curricula and revise textbooks and teaching methods so that they are free of sex-based stereotypes and that gender-based prejudices are eliminated from educational programs; the fact that women are entitled to the same employment opportunities as men; the participation of women in the labor force in different economic activities; the microcredit scheme and its impact in promoting women entrepreneurs; and, the commitments made by the government at the Fourth World Conference on Women that by the year 2000 it would: (a) reduce infant and maternal mortality rates by 50 per cent, (b) raise compulsory education to eight years, (c) eradicate female illiteracy; and, (d) withdraw the reservations to the Convention.

The Committee acknowledged factors and difficulties hindering full implementation of the Convention, including the reservations to articles 15 and 16, and difficulties arising from globalization, modernization and deeply rooted traditionalism which interplay strongly in the context of the status of women in Turkey. The Committee noted that Turkey is a secular country with a predominantly Muslim population under pressure from various political groups, and recognized the serious impact these pressures have on the condition of women, and the extent to which they serve to perpetuate the existing inequality between women and men and hamper the de jure and de facto implementation of the Convention.

The principal subjects of concern identified by the Committee were: the reservations to articles 15 and 16 of the Convention; the prolonged discussions and the resistance to the reform of the Civil Code; the fact that the General Directorate on the Status and Problems of women has no corresponding bodies at regional and local levels; the lack of an integrated and systematic approach by the national machinery and the relevant ministries to all areas covered by the Convention, in particular with regard to women in rural areas, vulnerable groups such as ethnic minorities, young women and women in prisons; and, the fact that various articles of the Penal Code, including those related to the abduction of single and married women and to adultery contradict paragraph (f), article 2 (laws constituting discrimination against women).

The Committee also expressed concern over: the fact that greater penalties are imposed for the rape of a woman who is a virgin; the practice of forced gynecological examinations of women in the investigation of allegations of sexual assault, including of women prisoners while in custody; the provisions of the Penal Code that allow less rigorous sanctions or penalties for "honor killings"; the lack of special temporary measures to redress the situation of Kurdish women, who suffer double discrimination; the pervasive violence, in all its forms, perpetrated against women and girls and the inadequacy of legal and educational measures to combat this violence; the failure to take into consideration the Committee’s general recommendation No.19 on violence against women and the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women; the law which categorizes violence as a "crime against public decency and public order", noting that it contradicts the spirit of the Convention and contravenes the dignity of the person; the ineffectiveness of juridical and educational measures to address violence within the family; the failure to take sufficient appropriate measures to prevent and combat the acceptance of male dominance and violence against women in rural as well as in urban areas, to beat women and to require silent obedience from them; and, the lack of concrete measures to prevent the high number of suicides among women victims of violence.

Concern was also expressed over: the fact that spousal consent is required for abortion; the existence of brothels regulated by law and the lack of information and statistical data about the phenomenon; the fact that Turkish political parties, trade unions and other public institutions are not sufficiently sensitive to the importance of the implementation of article 7 (participation in public life); the need for representation in decision-making bodies, including Parliament and the government, where the number of women is still very low; and, provisions in the Turkish Citizenship Law, stipulating that a Turkish woman who decides to assume the nationality of her foreign husband will lose her Turkish nationality.

Additional areas of concern included: the high level of illiteracy among women and girls, especially in the rural areas, the drop-out rates of girls in schools owing to family practices, early marriages and the prioritization of boys in school enrolment and other gender discriminatory practices in education; the clustering of women in higher education in areas regarded as "suitable for women"; the very low minimum age for employment, which contravenes relevant ILO Conventions; the high level of unemployment of migrant urban female workers, the lack of measures to integrate them in the labor markets and the persistent occupational segregation in lower paid jobs, impeding their upward mobility and further reinforcing discrimination against women in the labor market; the lack of legal literacy programs to raise the awareness of rural women regarding their rights; and the high number of women in rural areas who work in family enterprises, meaning that their work is not recognized in the formal economy, they do not receive social security benefits and their access to health services is limited.

The Committee recommended that the government:

Major Achievements in Promoting Gender Equality within the Frame of CEDAW:

a. One of the most significant steps taken in Turkey towards the empowerment of women since the Beijing Conference has been the implementation of 8-Year Compulsory Basic Education Law of 1997. In Turkey one of the main shortcomings of women’s education has always been the relatively low level of secondary school enrolment for the girl-child. This has been attributed to economic and cultural factors that deter the girl-child from continuing school after compulsory basic education. Thus, it is aimed that the enrolment levels of the girl-child will rise with the increase of compulsory basic education from 5 to 8 years. It is also expected that the new law will ensure that the critically aged girl-child will remain in the education system for longer period of time and thereby enhance her awareness of her individuality. In addition, it is planned that the girl child – who is following only 5 years of compulsory basic education could be swayed into different vocational education fields (as well as into religious education) by conservative parents and communities – will now have enhanced opportunities and freedom in her choice of secondary, tertiary and vocational education. 8-year compulsory basic education is also expected to rise the marriage and child birth ages by keeping the girl child in the educational system for a longer period of time.

b. The national strategic plan and Action Plan for the improvement of women’s health were formulated in follow-up to the Cairo and Beijing Conferences. This combined with enhanced inter-sectoral co-operation; the relevant legislation for family planning; and, the importance placed on physical infrastructure and human resource training has been a major preliminary result of 1998 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey confirm the overall improvement in women’s health. The preliminary results of the Survey reveal that: the rate of fertility has declined from 4,1 percent in 1980-1985 period to 2.6 percent in 1995-1998 period, a sharpen decline in infant mortality has been observed during the recent decades – it was estimated to be 53 per thousand live-birth in 1994 which is now 43 per thousand live-births, similar tendency has also been observed for maternal mortality.

c. The adoption of the Law for the protection of the Family, on 17 January 1998. The law grants third partied the right to file complaints of domestic violence and makes it possible for judges to place restraining orders against the family member who has used violence in the home, thereby ensuring that the perpetrator is kept away from the victims.

d. As of May 1997, an amendment has been made to Article 153 of the Turkish Civil Code, whereby women may now retain their maiden names following marriage if they wish to do so.

e. With an amendment made to the Income Tax Law in 1998, the income declaration of married women, independent of the conjugal union has been made possible, Women can now independently declare their income as individual taxpayers.

f. In 1996, the Constitutional Court annulled Article 441 of the Turkish Penal Code on Adultery (of the husband) on the grounds that the said article violated the principle of equality before the law, because Article 440 of the same code regulated the adultery (of the wife) differently. Such different treatment of adultery for husband and wife respectively in Articles 441 and 440 had also ran counter to the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Subsequently in 1998, the Constitutional Court also annulled Article 440) on the adultery of wives) on similar grounds. Currently, adultery is no longer defined as a crime under the Penal Code; it, however, continues to constitute grounds for divorce equally for both spouses in civil proceedings.

g. Declaration of civil status, entailing the descriptive phrases of “married/single/widowed/divorced” in officially issued identity cards has also been changed in 1997 and limited to the statement of “married” or “single” as applicable. This, it was envisioned, would protect individuals particularly single women, from the possible pejorative associations made with being divorced or widowed.

h. Also, in 1998 for the first time since the establishment of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, a special parliamentary investigative commission for gender discrimination was formed. This ad hoc commission completed its work in July 1998 and in its first final report recommended that Turkey withdraw its reservations to CEDAW; that gender mainstreaming be integrated in all policies; and that temporary special measures be taken in the education, labor and politics to ensure equality. The ad hoc commission also recommended the formation of a parliamentary Standing Commission on Gender Equality.