Women before the elections in Turkey/ "It could get worse"

2023-04-30 09:32:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Women before the elections in Turkey/ "It could get worse"

Illustrative photo

Turkey has a long way to go to true gender equality. But depending on the outcome of Turkey's general election, the situation for women could worsen further.

"In this country, women are kept underfoot," says 20-year-old Defne angrily. The rights of Turkish women are violated more and more often. To begin with, Turkey renounced the Istanbul Convention on the protection of women from violence.

But now the developments in the direction of the situation of women may worsen further, is the opinion of the left-oriented politician, Menekse Kizildere, referring to the upcoming elections. The right-wing parties that support Erdogan in these elections want to repeal law 6284, which is considered one of the most important laws left to protect women from violence.

"This is their election promise to repeal this law, that's how far they go," says Kizildere. The former head of the party, HDP Selahattin Demirtas, who suffered an arrest by the Turkish authorities, also expressed alarm. He labels Erdogan's electoral alliance with the so-called Islamist party Hüda a "Taliban alliance," and asks: "Will the Republic of Turkey in its second century resemble Afghanistan or Switzerland?"

Turkey is far from Switzerland

But we are very far from Switzerland and the rights and freedoms of this country, says Asllani, who is voting for the first time. Erdogan does not tolerate the rights of minorities and women. Erdogan and his allies make it clear how they see freedoms and rights in Turkey, his Interior Minister Soylu, who criminalizes the LGBT scene, presents its members almost as terrorists, bans demonstrations on Women's Day, or disproportionately allows violence in protests.

Freedoms are especially for men, says 60-year-old Semran. Women, in other words, are always in second place. "We are nowhere equal, neither in society, nor at home, nor on the street. There is a dominance of men."

A recent study by the social democratic foundation SODEV with the support of the German foundation Friedrich Ebert confirms this. "The main result was that most women do not feel good in their country", says the head of the study, Yasemin Ahi for the ARD studio in Istanbul. 60% of women surveyed say that they are not happy as women in Turkey.

Whereas more than 80% of women do not feel safe on the street at night. They mention sexual harassment and violence against women as an important problem. But often the perpetrators of these crimes receive lenient sentences, or are not punished at all. For Yasemin Ahi, this is a failure of politics. "The impunity of the perpetrators is an issue that can only be fixed politically."

Women may become a danger to Erdogan in the elections

But the Turkish parties do not undertake much in this direction. Even the opposition alliance does not plan to return to the Istanbul Convention, because of the conservative forces within the alliance. According to experts, however, it may be women who can punish Erdogan with votes.

Yasemin Ahi says that "in 2018, there were 38.3% of women voters who voted for Erdogan, while if it were to be voted now, only 26% of them would vote for Erdogan". Women are half of Turkish society. Their vote could be decisive for the outcome of Turkey's general election. And their expectations of politics have increased in recent years, Ahi says. However, under the hoof they don't want to stay anymore./ DW