Being a Woman in Turkey
“We don’t need the education that we will get from a woman,” said a Turkish politician in April. “How dare you to give speech to us?” This is not the only sexist speech in Turkish politics, there are so many talks which humiliate women almost every day. It is not like this only in politics, nearly in all fields of life, people disparage women. I am writing here “people” rather than “men” because there are also women who think men are better than themselves and this is the biggest obstacle that women and girls have in Turkey: to put women in stereotypes.
“Girls don’t need to go to school, they should marry as early as possible,” or “Women shouldn’t work, they should be mother and sit at home,” are some of the common sentences that girls and women hear especially in eastern part of Turkey. According to statistics, 85 girls go high school for every 100 boys. The ratio of boys’ attending to university is 11% more than that of girls. According to TUIK 2014 statics, 30.3% of women are employed. In Turkey, women stay in the background.
Unfortunately, it is a reality that women are murdered, hit or harassed in Turkey. It is because of this narrow-minded thinking style that women are not equal to men. In 2015, 414 women were murdered and it is keeps happening in 2016. This “women is at second plan” thinking style also causing the murders and violence to women. This sexism comes from both our culture and religion. If you open an idiom dictionary, you may see many sexist idioms which insult women. There is one cultural idiom which means “fifteen year-old girl should be either married or dead” and another “If you don’t beat your daughter, you will regret it later.” Of course those idioms are coming from our ancestors and it would be illogical to hope our ancestors to be unsexist. However, the problem here is that we couldn’t succeed to get rid of them and this thinking style. Despite the fact that many people try to say it is not true, it is a reality that women seem lower than men in Islam, but it is not so much related to Islam, it is about people who hide behind an excuse to their actions.
All those sexist thinking styles and actions prevent women from reaching the status in public that they deserve. There are many girls in eastern Turkey who cannot reach at their dreams because they are forced to be married and give birth while they are still children. There are women who cannot work because their husbands don’t let them and there are politicians who encourage men to behave like this. “Mothers shouldn’t make another career rather than being mother,” said another politician.
So how will we terminate this sexism in Turkey? It won’t end unless this sexist thinking structure and stereotypes stop. This sexist thoughts cause most of the problems that women and girls face today. There are many school-age girls in eastern Turkey who cannot go to school and waiting for a husband while their brothers go to school. “What will change if a girl goes to school or not?” they say. As a matter of fact, the truth is: her life will definitely change.
There are some campaigns which try to support female rights. “Dad, send me to school” is a campaign which tries to find girls who cannot go to school and help them to go to school. Also there are campaigns about idioms that are trying to take sexist idioms out of idiom dictionaries. There are shelters for women who are exposed to violence but are they really useful? There are many women who have been killed after they took protection from police. So what should be done? First of all government should stop giving sexist speeches and encouraging sexist people, police protection should be useful, courts should be giving serious punishments to men who are beating their wives, and of course: education. As every problem, this problem has also something to do with education. The quantity and the quality of the education should be improved. Most importantly, we should always be seeking our rights. If we can unite as a country, people cannot shout at women to suppress their rights.
Works Cited
"Bir Yılda 414 Kadın öldürüldü." Cumhuriyet. N.p., 16 Feb. 2016. Web. 15 May 2016. <http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turkiye/482296/Bir_yilda_414_kadin_olduruldu.html>.
Cansu, Burcu. "Birgun." Birgun. N.p., 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 15 May 2016. <http://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/4-4-4-ile-binlerce-kiz-cocugu-okulu-birakti-90857.html>.
"Kadından Alacağımız Eğitime Ihtiyacımız Yok." Cumhuriyet. N.p., 3 Apr. 2016. Web. 15 May 2016. <http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/siyaset/509377/_Kadindan_alacagimiz_egitime_ihtiyacimiz_yok_.html>.
TUIK, comp. Statistics on Child 2014. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute, 2015. Print.
"Yılın Ilk Cinsiyetçi Açıklaması: Sağlık Bakanı’na Göre Kadının Kariyeri Annelik Olmalı."
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