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Re/forming the penal code in Turkey from a gender perspective: the case of a successful campaign

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This chapter aims to provide a critical account of the campaign, it actors that contributed to its success. It draws on the author's personal experience as the co-founder of the Women's Working Group Penal Code, that initiated the campaign and the coordinator of the NGO, Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR)-NEW WAYS, which acted as the coordinating body of the campaign during the entire process.On September 26, 2004, a draft law aimed at the reform of the Turkish Penal Code was accepted in the Turkish Parliament as the result of a successful three-year campaign (2002-2004) led by a Platform of women’s and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) organizations (The Platform for the Reform of the Turkish Penal Code). The campaign was successful in realizing more than 35 amendments towards recognition of women’s legal entitlement to sexual and bodily autonomy and rights despite strong opposition from the right-wing, Islamist AKP (Justice and Development Party) government. The campaign aimed to transform the underlying philosophy and principles of the old penal code that constructed women’s bodies and sexuality as belonging to their families, fathers, husbands and society; eliminate all articles in the old penal code that constituted violations of women’s human rights, particularly sexual and bodily rights; and to ensure progressive definitions of sexual crimes. Throughout the campaign, advocates emphasized the holistic nature of their demands, stating that their aim was not the revision of a number of articles, but rather a complete reform of the penal code, overhauling the patriarchal framework of the code so as to legally recognize women’s autonomy over their bodies and their sexuality within Turkish law. The three-year campaign succeeded not only in a revolutionary change of the underlying philosophy of the Turkish Penal Code towards the recognition of women’s autonomy over their sexuality and bodies, but also in achieving 35 amendments of the penal code, which were strongly opposed by the government at the beginning of the campaign, constituting a groundbreaking shift in the overall perspective of the Turkish state and the public on the issue. The campaign, which triggered numerous, wide-ranging public debates and made frequent front page headlines in the media, occupied the public agenda in Turkey for three years, generated the widest discussion and broke several taboos on issues related to sexuality in Turkey. This chapter aims to provide a critical account of the campaign, its actors and the factors that contributed to its success. It draws on the author’s personal experience as the co-founder of the Women’s Working Group on the Penal Code, that initiated the campaign and coordinator of the NGO, Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR) – NEW WAYS, which acted as the coordinating body of the campaign during the entire process. The founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923 after the war of independence was followed by the introduction of several revolutionary reforms, including drastic changes regarding equality of women and men in the legal sphere; secularization of the state; the abolishment of the Sultanate, the shari’a and the caliphate and the adoption of Latin letters as the Turkish alphabet.1 In 1926 the introduction of the Turkish Civil code, modeled upon the Swiss Civil code, banned polygamy and granted women equal rights in matters of divorce and child custody. The Civil code in particular was an important victory over the advocates of shari’a. If we look at other examples of Middle Eastern countries, such as Egypt, or Iran under the Shah, we see that they underwent similar attempts at Westernization but stopped short of reforming the family law codes or introducing changes to the status of women. From this perspective, the early and uncompromising nature of the so-called ‘Kemalist revolution’ becomes even more striking (Arat 1994). However, even this widely acknowledged and celebrated reform of the Turkish Civil code, which has been widely acknowledged as progressive both by academic circles and the Turkish public, was in fact far from bringing actual equality for women in Turkey. Until the reform of the Turkish Civil code in 2001, several laws, especially those in the marriage and family section of the old Civil code, reduced women to a subordinate position in the family. For example, the husband was defined as the head of the marriage union, thus granting him the final say over the choice of domicile as well as the final say concerning children. Even decades after the legal reform of the new republic aiming at equality between women and men, little had changed in the everyday life of the majority of women living in Turkey. Yet, traditional and contemporary patriarchy has continued to dominate other areas of life. Although primary education has been mandatory since 1924, 32 per cent of women living in Turkey are still illiterate, according to the population census of 1985. The percentage of paid women workers is still a mere 16.1 per cent in urban areas (Fourth World Women’s Conference, Turkey National Report 1994). The representation of women at the Parliament remains under five per cent. Yet the official discourse of the state held that the problem of the status of women has been solved and that Turkish women should consider themselves ‘lucky’ because they were granted specific rights in the public sphere even before their European counterparts. Unfortunately, this discourse has been internalized by many of the women who have been able to benefit from the new possibilities of the young Republic, such as professional women living in big cities or women of the bureaucratic elite. As a result, most of the women’s groups and associations formed during the post-Republican era have concentrated on ‘helping’ or ‘educating’ women living in the rural areas, instead of questioning their own status or advocating for further rights. Moreover, the dichotomy they perceived between themselves and the rural women hindered their understanding of the problems and potentials of these women, whom they were supposedly trying to ‘help,’ thus their efforts and strategies have been quite ineffective. In the 1960s and 1970s, right and left-wing political movements dominated Turkish political debate and action in reaction to strong state controls. In this environment, women’s issues were subsumed into Marxist discourses, as leftist women activists were incorporated into the Marxist movement. The 1970s in Turkey witnessed an armed conflict between right and left wing groups, which resulted in a tragic atmosphere of violence and the deaths of hundreds of activists and civilians. The 1980 military intervention, which was justified by the military as the only way to put an end to the anarchic atmosphere, suppressed leftist opposition by force, applied a systematic de-politicization of the masses and set the stage for neo-liberalist policies proposed by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and other capitalist forces. In this atmosphere of repression and fear, the first new social movement, which demonstrated the courage, to oppose the government actions and articulate its demands was the women’s movement

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Istanbul : Women for Women's Human Rights ( WWHR)., 2007

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24p. ; 29cm

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English

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KP.II

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