-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,7369,624898,00.html
}}}>Begin
New rights edge Turkish women into 21st century
Code covers marriage, divorce and employment
Bill Sellars in Istanbul
Thursday December 27, 2001
The Guardian
A sweeping overhaul of Turkey's civil code, intended to end
discrimination against women, comes into force on January 1, part of
the country struggle to bring its laws in line with the European
Union so that it can qualify for membership.
The new code, ratified by the president earlier this month, strips
men of their status as the head of the family and sole arbiter of its
fate. It replaces a 1926 law based on the then Swiss civil code, in
which the husband was recognised as "the head of the marriage union".
On New Year's Day Turkish women will be recognised as having equal standing in
marriage, and will have the legal right to represent the family and to seek employment
without the husband's consent, and even to retain their
maiden name, hyphenated with the husband's.
The justice minister, Hikmet Sami Turk, has claimed that the code will bring the
status of Turkish women into the 21st century. But some women's groups, especially in
the under-developed south-east, fear that it lacks suf
ficient bite.
Nebahat Akkoc of the women's rights group Kamer, based in the south-eastern city of
Diyarbakir, points out that, in the face of entrenched opposition and unyielding
tradition, previous attempts to improve the status of wo
men in that region were not implemented.
"The ratio of religious marriages, polygamy, under-age marriage, sexual abuse, rape
and honour killing here is very high," she said. "The traditions that are a way of
life here have been in force for hundreds of years."
The new code raises the legal age of marriage for girls from 15 to 18, but the current
age limit is flouted. Earlier this month it was revealed that more than 20 primary
schoolgirls aged between 10 and 13 from the village
of Acarlar in western Turkey had been sold into marriage by their families.
In much the same way amendments to the family law code passed more than a year ago
made domestic violence a crime, but few cases of violence in the home have gone to
court, and none in the south-east, Ms Akkoc said.
One of the most controversial aspects of the new law relates to divorce. The lack of
state support for single mothers and abandoned wives has been cited by analysts as a
factor behind Turkey's relatively low divorce rates
.
>From January 1 women, at least on paper, will be entitled to an equal share of the
>assets accumulated during the union. Previously they could only claim whatever they
>had owned before the marriage.
The divorce clause, more than any other in the act, has raised the hackles of the
conservatives. The two Islamic parties in parliament have been particularly vociferous
in attacking the legislation as a threat to the trad
itional family
According to Nurettin Aktas, a Justice and Development party MP from the south-east
ern province of Gaziantep, the code has put a time bomb under the Turkish family's
traditional structure, with the man as its foundation.
"The assets belong to men," he said.
"I am a child of a tribe. Under our tribal system there are no laws written as in the
British system, but rules deriving from traditions and customs.
"When the man dies and is in his grave, then the women and children own the assets."
Only those couples marrying after January 1 will be covered by the new law, unless the
husband agrees to accept the new provisions.
Nebahat Akkoc of Kamer believes that one of the potential stumbling
blocks to implementing the code is that women, especially among the
south-east's large Kurdish population, remain unaware of their newly
won rights.
"The only link with the world for those women who don't speak Turkish
is their husbands - and they certainly aren't going to go to their
wives and tell them about changes in the civil code," she said.
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
End<{{{
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