Finally, there are those women’s movements that
work within the Islamic establishment and are sup-
portive of it, although often with their own inter-
pretations. In Sudan, for example, many leading
militant Islamist women of the National Islamic
Front (NIF) such as Su≠àd al-Fàti™al-Badawìand
Batùl Mukhtàr Mu™ammad ¢àhàwere actively
involved in interpreting Islam independently and
mobilizing supporters for the Islamicist cause in
the 1980s.
In addition to these strategies at the national
level, there are regional organizations, such as Women
Living Under Muslim Laws, which are involved in
information sharing, database building, network-
ing, solidarity action, and organizing campaigns
throughout Africa and the Middle East. These
organizations have allowed women in predomi-
nantly Muslim countries to coordinate their activi-
ties and learn from one another.
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Aili Mari TrippTurkeyIn 1934, prior to all Muslim countries and many
Western states, Turkish women had full suffrage
rights. Following the 1935 elections 4.5 percent of
the members of parliament were women; since then
this ratio has never been attained.
In the literature few reasons are put forward to
explain why Turkish women gained the vote so
early. First, and most important, is that female par-
ticipation in public life was seen as one of the major
reflections of the Turkish Republic’s project of sec-
turkey 563ularization, Westernization, and modernization.
Second, it is argued that the early republican regime
was trying to distance itself from the rising fascist
regimes in Europe, and granting suffrage rights to
women was a show of alliance with democracy in
Europe (Tekeli 1982). It has also been argued that
demands coming from women’s groups, starting in
the Ottoman period and including those by the
Turkish Women’s Association in the 1920s and
1930s, were significant and the republican leaders
could not turn a blind eye to them (Çakır 1994).
However, we see noticeable decreases in women’s
representation with the introduction of the multi-
party system in 1950, a development that meant
that there was no further need to prove democrati-
zation of the country.
In 2003 Turkey ranked 110th amongst 173
countries in women’s representation in parliament
(4.4 percent) and in local government women’s rep-
resentation was less than 2 percent. This low level
of participation constitutes a sharp contrast to the
relatively high level of participation of women in
professions (33.9 percent) and public offices (17
percent) (UNDP 2000). Such low levels of political
participation are due to factors that are also com-
mon to other parts of the world. Women in general
lack assets such as financial resources, organiza-
tional capacity, political expertise and experience,
as well as a traditional community support base,
which are considered essential for political success.
Moreover, motherhood, family, and modesty are
important values that usually clash with the ex-
pected competitive, assertive, argumentative, and
extroverted nature of politicians (Güneç-Ayata
1998). Under these circumstances, the majority of
the women in political positions are “selected” by
the party leadership as tokens to demonstrate egal-
itarian perspectives of the parties (Yaraman 1999).
Despite this low representation in the political
sphere, gender issues and role models have been
focal in Turkish politics. Early republican reforms
envisaged a woman who was educated, working,
and participating equally with men in public life
(Durakbaça 1998). Equality in public life rather
than the private sphere was stressed, even though
here too there were many advances through the
introduction of the Civil Code in 1926, such as
equal rights of property inheritance, divorce, and
custody.
This model has been challenged since the 1980s
from many perspectives. First, feminists from many
different ideological standpoints argued that the
republican model of equality has been only partly
successful because it underestimated the difficulties
experienced by women because of family duties,