Friday November 7 2008 / Citizenship
Women’s activism in Turkey: pushing the boundaries
The legal position of women in Turkey has improved dramatically in recent years. However, despite the often far-reaching reforms of the Turkish civil and penal code under the AKP administration, little has changed in the daily lives of many women, especially outside urban areas. Turkey ranks 121st out of 128 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index 2007. The participation of women in the Turkish labour force is still very low: 29%, according to the same Index. Gender inequality in education persists, and only 51 of the 550 members of parliament are women; political participation in other government bodies is lower still. Earlier this year AKP efforts to lift the ban on the headscarf on university premises sparked a heated debate on religious values in the public sphere and caused alarm among secular women about the significance of emancipation in Turkey.
Yakin Ertürk, Professor of Sociology at Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara as well as UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, will speak on the position and role of women in Turkish society in the light of recent political and socio-economic developments.
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