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Monogamy and gender equality
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Recently, at one of Ankara’s splendid five-star hotels there was a rather rare pluralist workshop on participation of women and the "less advantageous members of the society" in politics. It was a rare pluralist event because, for a change, people from different views and political tendencies were invited. The event was hosted by the Turkish Democracy Foundation, or TDV, under the patronage of Nimet Çubukçu, the state minister in charge of women affairs.
Representatives of women groups, as well as chairpersons of various disabled associations and foundations presented snapshots from Turkey through their perspectives and listed demands for an increased say for their groups in politics. These demands included allocation of a certain percentage of quota for women, as well as the disabled, in both local and parliamentary elections. There were people as well who opposed such forced measures and instead called for positive discrimination measures to be taken by the government to encourage women and the disabled to engage more in politics.
There were some participants who preferred to talk about hard-core issues such as gender equality, place of women in society, participation of girls in education, deprivation of women from heritage rights, forced "religious marriage" of girls at very young ages (as young as 9 to 10) contrary to the civil law as well as the continued polygamy practices not only in rural areas but even among parliamentarians and members of the Cabinet. Naturally, minister Çubukçu was upset with such questions, which she condemned as attempts to "dilute the very important discussions" being held with tabloid journalism approaches. For the minister, asking how many Cabinet members or how many deputies were participating in polygamy was not an acceptable question from a "respectable" journalist though she was aware that at least one of her male Cabinet colleagues, scores of deputies of the ruling AKP, and some of the opposition deputies were participating in polygamy, or one wife with an official marriage contract and one or more wives with religious marriage contracts, which is not recognized by the state.
If a country claims to be on the path to European Union membership; if gender equality and recognition of the inalienable rights of women are among the founding pillars of that modernization process; and if in both the government and Parliament of that country there are some backward-minded people still engaged in polygamy and the head of the government is taking no measures to bring an end to that primitive practice at least among his ministers and deputies of his ruling party, obviously it becomes all the more clear how successful the lip service is that the government and prime minister have been paying to democracy, gender equality and indeed this country’s EU membership bid. Sorry to say but "Turkey is a train heading to West but the passengers are walking East on the train" appears nothing but a misconception because the Turkey train might have two locomotives, one in the rear pulling the train to the East and one in the front pulling it to the West and Turkey is dangling to the tunes of the Ottoman Mehteran band: Two steps forward, one step backward... What is "forward" and what is "backward" depends from where one looks at that train and what he understands from those expressions.
A Nigerian’s case
But, at least the Interior Ministry has apparently woken up last week and remembered that Turkey is a country adhering to the supremacy of law and in Turkish civil law polygamy is prohibited. Apparently an application by a Nigerian man (who was married in his home country but under Islamic rules applicable in his country that allow a man to have up to four wives obtained a "No restriction for marriage" document from his country) to take a second wife in Turkey prompted a heated exchange of communications between the Interior and Foreign ministries. Eventually, the Interior Ministry finalized the discussion saying regardless of what might be the rule in their home country, foreigners living in Turkey were to conform with laws in Turkey and thus under Turkish civil law a man cannot take a second wife.
Congratulations to the Interior Ministry for reminding of the law! Will our law makers realize as well that since they are not just living in Turkey but making laws and applying laws in this country they should be the first in conforming to the laws?
There were some participants who preferred to talk about hard-core issues such as gender equality, place of women in society, participation of girls in education, deprivation of women from heritage rights, forced "religious marriage" of girls at very young ages (as young as 9 to 10) contrary to the civil law as well as the continued polygamy practices not only in rural areas but even among parliamentarians and members of the Cabinet. Naturally, minister Çubukçu was upset with such questions, which she condemned as attempts to "dilute the very important discussions" being held with tabloid journalism approaches. For the minister, asking how many Cabinet members or how many deputies were participating in polygamy was not an acceptable question from a "respectable" journalist though she was aware that at least one of her male Cabinet colleagues, scores of deputies of the ruling AKP, and some of the opposition deputies were participating in polygamy, or one wife with an official marriage contract and one or more wives with religious marriage contracts, which is not recognized by the state.
If a country claims to be on the path to European Union membership; if gender equality and recognition of the inalienable rights of women are among the founding pillars of that modernization process; and if in both the government and Parliament of that country there are some backward-minded people still engaged in polygamy and the head of the government is taking no measures to bring an end to that primitive practice at least among his ministers and deputies of his ruling party, obviously it becomes all the more clear how successful the lip service is that the government and prime minister have been paying to democracy, gender equality and indeed this country’s EU membership bid. Sorry to say but "Turkey is a train heading to West but the passengers are walking East on the train" appears nothing but a misconception because the Turkey train might have two locomotives, one in the rear pulling the train to the East and one in the front pulling it to the West and Turkey is dangling to the tunes of the Ottoman Mehteran band: Two steps forward, one step backward... What is "forward" and what is "backward" depends from where one looks at that train and what he understands from those expressions.
A Nigerian’s case
But, at least the Interior Ministry has apparently woken up last week and remembered that Turkey is a country adhering to the supremacy of law and in Turkish civil law polygamy is prohibited. Apparently an application by a Nigerian man (who was married in his home country but under Islamic rules applicable in his country that allow a man to have up to four wives obtained a "No restriction for marriage" document from his country) to take a second wife in Turkey prompted a heated exchange of communications between the Interior and Foreign ministries. Eventually, the Interior Ministry finalized the discussion saying regardless of what might be the rule in their home country, foreigners living in Turkey were to conform with laws in Turkey and thus under Turkish civil law a man cannot take a second wife.
Congratulations to the Interior Ministry for reminding of the law! Will our law makers realize as well that since they are not just living in Turkey but making laws and applying laws in this country they should be the first in conforming to the laws?
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