Discrimination in Turkey’s public institutions and universities against women who wear the Muslim headscarf will be appealed to the UN CEDAW committee.

Discrimination against women - 15 / 05 / 2008 08:51

Discrimination in Turkey’s public institutions and universities against women who wear the Muslim headscarf will be appealed to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) committee.

Civil society organizations have drawn up a preliminary assessment report regarding the Turkish government’s sixth report that envisages the implementation of CEDAW.

The shadow report was discussed at the 9th Women’s Meeting held in Konya between May 10 and 12 and received the support of all the women’s organizations in attendance.

In the report, the historical course of the headscarf ban in Turkey is recounted with a great deal of emphasis placed on the hardships women who wear the headscarf are put through.

The headscarf ban is associated with low female participation in politics, early marriage and childbearing, negative impacts on family relations and the prevention from equal rights in education and work life.

Zeynep Goknil Piyade, an executive board member of CEDAW Civil Society, briefed attendees on the shadow report and stressed the importance of submitting the report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, since it was an authority that they could appeal to regarding women’s rights.

“Turkey has problems in women’s working conditions and violence against women. We have drawn up a shadow report after having held meetings in every region in the country. However, since reports that focus on specific topics are likely to get more attention from the CEDAW committee, we have prepared a separate report on the headscarf ban,” she said.

Lawyer Fatma Benli remarked that Turkey had not fulfilled its responsibilities stemming from the CEDAW agreement.

“They don’t include the problems related to the headscarf in state reports, while about 17 million women wear the scarf in Turkey. It is so difficult to determine how many women are deprived of their right to an education and work. We demand that the committee object to the ban altogether,” she said, adding that the report would be submitted to the committee in July.

If the committee acts on the information in this report, it will question the state on its handling of the situation.

Though the committee has no sanctioning power, it does have the right to make suggestions to states and caution them against failing to fulfill their commitments.

About 225 women from 35 civil society organizations attended the 9th Women’s Meeting, which was organized by the Compassion Association (Sefkat-Der).

Apart from the shadow report to be submitted to the committee, papers on various issues, such as violence against women, Turkish modernization and policies toward women and the history of female movements were presented at the meeting.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly and signed by Turkey in 1980, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.

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