The young republic’s project of creating a state
based on the rule of law was an important develop-
ment with respect to women. Prior to 1923, laws
were based on the religious or customary laws of a
particular community, and different laws applied
depending on a citizen’s religion, gender, occupa-
tional status, or sect. Though for Muslim women
the Qur±àn was the basic source of family law, par-
ticular interpretations and practices depended on
the religion, sect, ethnic group, class, and region to
which a woman belonged.
Women are those who are generally most disad-
vantaged in societies where parallel legal systems
exist (separate judicial systems for religious or ethnic
minorities, or judicial systems whose laws are based
on traditions that vary from one region to another),
as the laws implemented tend to be the ones with
the most negative consequences for women
(Shaheed 1994). The new republic’s establishment
of a modern legal system had two significant
advantages for women in Turkey: first, the uniform
legal system provided a basis for counteracting or
diminishing the harmful impacts of the parallel legal
systems on women; second, the new Civil Code
undermined the traditional power of religious
authorities – including the religious right – over
laws pertaining to family, whereas the previous
parallel system allowed religious fundamentalists
to impose laws in their particular religious commu-
nities that were severely discriminatory to women
(Ali and Arif 1994, WRAG 1997).
The initial republican reforms aimed at a unified,
secular law, and later improvements in the legal
domain have signified the end of the official validity
of religious and customary laws in Turkey. How-
ever, these often continue to shape the daily lives of
women, depending on their class, geographical
region, and the ethnic and/or religious group to
which they belong. The negative impacts of reli-
gious/customary practices are generally more severe
for women of lower educational and socioeco-
nomic levels; women living in economically disad-
vantaged regions and women of minority groups
are most often unable to benefit from legal reform,
as for example is the case for Kurdish women living
in eastern Turkey.
Thus, while practices such as early and forced
marriages, honor crimes, religious marriages, and
polygynous marriages constitute clear violations of
either Turkish Civil or Penal Code laws, these all
continue to occur. The Turkish constitution and the
Civil Code both enshrine the principle of civil mar-
riage, and religious marriages have no validity
under Turkish law. Polygamy is forbidden and a
turkey 427religious marriage ceremony cannot be held before
a civil one (Articles 130, 143, 145 and 174 of the
Turkish Civil Code). Violation of the law regarding
civil marriage is a criminal offense for both the cou-
ple and the person who conducts such a ceremony
(Article 237 of the Turkish Penal Code). However,
effective enforcement of these laws is rare. In 2000,
75 years after the enactment of these laws, 7.4 per-
cent of all marriages in Turkey were religious only
and lacked a civil marriage contract, and the major-
ity of these (53 percent) occurred in eastern Turkey
(DGSPW 2001). Moreover, research shows that
one in ten women in eastern Turkey is in a poly-
gynous marriage, despite the ban on polygamy
(Ilkkaracan and WWHR 1998).
The higher prevalence of religious and customary
practices in eastern Turkey, many in violation of
Turkish law, can be attributed in part to socio-
economic conditions, which progressively worsen
from west to east; to the dominance of a tribal sys-
tem among the Kurdish population that constitutes
the majority in eastern Turkey; and to legal and
non-legal discrimination affecting the Kurdish pop-
ulation as a minority in Turkey. The tribal struc-
tures (açiret) dominating the Kurdish population
are organized around large, clan-like families with
tribal leaders and are based on a feeling of group
solidarity involving large numbers of extended
family members. The members are deemed to be
responsible for upholding customary laws and
practices, including early marriage, bride price, and
so-called honor crimes, which are based on an ide-
ology that assumes women’s bodies are the prop-
erty of the extended family/tribe/community, and
that the honor of the extended family is dependent
on the chastity of its women. In addition, Turkish is
the only official language of all governmental in-
stitutions, including judicial ones, and Kurdish
women, who speak little or no Turkish, are left with
little recourse to the law for protection.
Research shows a wide range of religious and
customary practices are negatively impacting
women in eastern Turkey. For example, 16.3 per-
cent of women living in the region were married
before the age of 15, the minimum legal age for
marriage according to the Civil Code until 2001
(the minimum legal age for marriage was raised to
18 for both sexes in 2001). More than half the
women (50.8 percent) were married without their
consent, although the consent of both parties is a
precondition of marriage according to Turkish
law. The percentage of women who thought they
would be killed by their husbands and/or families if
they committed adultery was 67 percent, although