TurkeyThe Civil Code of the Turkish Republic was
passed in 1926, and comprised family law as one of
its sub-fields. The new law entailed substantive
improvements in the status of women (Starr 1974).
Polygamy and repudiation were outlawed while
women gained equal rights with men in terms of
conditions and initiation of divorce. Custody rights
in case of divorce were rearranged so as to bring
equal rights to women. Prevailing inequalities in
inheritance between male and female children were
abrogated. Civil union was recognized as the only
legally valid form of marriage, thereby reducing the
importance of religious marriage.
The new family law was not recognized as a code
in its own right but comprised only a segment of the
Civil Code. Nevertheless it was a key element of
republican reforms as it rearranged relations be-
tween genders and between generations and changed
the ways in which household and family were cre-
ated and dissolved. This was a central part of the
republican desire to replace existing Islamic impe-
rial practices and institutions with secular, civic,
and so-called “modern” ones. In line with the
envisaged civilizational shift of the Turkish Repub-
lic from an Islamic culture, perceived as backward,
to one based on Western ideals with a progressive
ethos, the law made no reference to Islamic law in
terms of source or content. The new Turkish Civil
Code was mainly a translation and adaptation of
the Swiss Civil Code of the time.
Yet, the law cast the husband as head of the
household who was to have the ultimate say in mat-
ters such as custody of children or domicile. The
wife was cast as “assistant and counselor of the
husband.” In order to work outside the home, mar-
ried women needed permission from their husbands.
All in all women’s rights in terms of family law
were meant to sustain the nuclear family by casting
women in the roles of enlightened, secular wives
and mothers. Women’s presence, both public and
private, was meant to be primarily for the better-
ment of the nation and the new republican nuclear
family – often conceived in interchangeable forms
(Sirman 2000).
In the next seven decades the code remained rel-
atively intact until the 1990s, although efforts to
change it had already begun in the 1950s. The
1990s saw the impact of the feminist movement as
it publicly problematized the Civil Code in terms of
women’s rights. Feminists also mobilized the effects
of global women’s movement such as the Conven-
tion on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination472 law: modern family law, 1800–present
against Women (CEDAW), which Turkey had rati-
fied in 1985. The clause that required the husband’s
permission for a married woman to be able to work
outside the home was annulled in 1994. The Law on
the Protection of Family, passed in 1998, enabled
women to seek restraining orders in case of physi-
cal abuse. In 2001 the constitution was amended to
state that: “the family is ... based on the equality of
spouses.” The new Civil Code, a result of feminist
efforts, stipulates equality of spouses within mar-
riage in terms of domicile and custody. The hus-
band is no longer recognized as head of the
household; both spouses represent the family. The
law sets the age of 18 as the legal minimum age for
marriage for both men and women, whereas pre-
viously it was 17 for men and 15 for women.
Children born out of wedlock have the same rights
as the children of married parents and their moth-
ers have primary claim over their custody. The law
also allows single parents to adopt children.
Moreover, instead of the previous default regime of
separate property, it establishes a new matrimonial
property regime. In the case of divorce – unless
another property regime is selected by the couple –
property obtained during the course of marriage is
to be divided equally, regardless of whose name it is
registered under. Here the law recognizes women’s
domestic labor in the making of family property. A
parliamentary bill, however, limits the application
of this law to property acquired only after January
2003, implying the de factoexclusion of about 15
million married women from the law’s provision.
Political and legal contentions around this article
continue.
Another important development in terms of fam-
ily law in Turkey was the establishment of family
courts in 2003. The new courts are to apply related
sections of the Civil Code together with the Law on
the Protection of the Family and are to engage in
a deeper examination of the family situation of
litigants. The new specialized family courts can
potentially facilitate the juridical recognition of dis-
advantages women face in family life.
Next to the nature of the legal texts, access to law
remains another key aspect of gender inequality in
family law. There is a significant gender gap in the
effect of legal institutions and knowledge on daily
life practices. This leaves women vulnerable to cus-
tomary practices that are themselves reproduced in
relation to the weak injunctive power of the law.Bibliography
I. Ilkkaracan and P. Ilkkaracan, Kuldan yurttaç±a.
Kadınlar neresinde?, in A. Unsal (ed.), 75 yilda tebaa±
dan yurttaç±a do©ru, Istanbul 1998, 77–90.