WUNRN
Women's Rights Organization Against
Discrimination - AKDER
Website: http://www.ak-der.org/
Contact: info@ak-der.org
TURKEY - GENERAL CONDITION OF WOMEN
& EFFECTS OF HEADSCARF BAN
Full Document (43 pages) available
upon request to WUNRN - mosie@infionline.net
ABSTRACT - Excerpts
This research report investigates
the negative effect of the headscarf ban on the development of women's rights
and aims to draw a map of general problems of women in Turkey according to
statistical data. Thus, the problems of women in the fields of education,
employment, political presentation, violence, rural areas, health, social
security, and social life are stated expressly dependingt on statistical data.
Following this, a research about the effect of the headscarf ban which is
applied to headscarved women who constitue some 65% of the women
population in Turkey, is conducted. The difficulty of collecting statistical
data about the discriminative treatment to headscarved women in public and the
ratio of women who are affected by this ban, is discussed. The juridical
character of the headscarf ban is evaluated in accordance with international
law norms and especially United Nations documents, the differences of the
European Human Rights Convention (EHRC) from UN agreements, different
protecting areas of EHRC from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the effects of the Leyla Sahin
decision........
CONCLUSIONS & EVALUATION - Excerpts:
........International indexes of
gender equality place Turkey at low levels and show that women in Turkey have
to face great difficulties in all areas of life (education, work, family life,
health, etc.). Research on related areas show that Turkey provides equality of
women and men on paper, in legislation; but laws are not reflected in practice.
Turkey's low placement in the World Gender rank reveals that prejudices and
discriminatory treatment based on gender perpetuate violence against women.
This affects women negatively in many areas of life including education,
employment, and health. Discrimination
against women wearing the headscarf makes this situation worse in Turkey. Placing
obstacles in front of women based on their clothing prevents them from becoming
financially stronger and from potentially solving their other problems.
As many as 62-65% of women wear
the headscarf in Turkey; and therefore, exclusion from social life and
discrimination against these women would inevitably lower Turkey's rank in
gender equality indexes..........
Discrimination against women wearing
the headscarf decreases their ability to become part of society, hinders their
personal development, prevents them from advancing their cultural knowledge,
restricts them from obtaining financial independence, and puts major obstacles
in front of their empowerment and advancement........
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