A woman’s spirit

Dear Charlotte:

“I’ve been married eight years… My self esteem is so low I don’t know if I can face life on my own. I have been considering trying to get away from my husband since the day I met him when I was 17, but he has such a hold on my mind and I can’t do it yet. He threatens to have me hurt if I try to leave. I realized that I was in serious trouble after the birth of our first child. It was nothing I could put my finger on. It was all so subtle and always done in private. My spirit has died. I have no happiness. … I live in constant fear. Even though I am allowed go out to work, I must return home immediately after work. It is like a prison. … I just wanted to share this with someone so I have written to you.” (An excerpt from the letter.)

There are many women who go to work and move about their day and appear as though everything is fine. They do their jobs, but their private life is miserable. The problem of this sort of abuse is widespread. Although in some nations women can more easily leave their spouses, it is never easy. There are women around the world who live in fear and can’t leave for one reason or another. Sometimes it has to do with woman’s place in society and gender equality. Unfortunately, abuse does not always happen at home but can also occur on the job.

Just a couple of days ago I read about a case in the newspaper where a Florida (US) woman, age 23, was shot after being stalked for two years. It this case the woman was happily married, and the stalker was an acquaintance from a previous job. Stalkers, through letters, phone calls and physical presence, can be unsettling and upsetting.

The lives of countless women through childhood, adolescence, work, leisure, marriage, family, sexual relations and motherhood have been influenced by abusive situations.

Visitors to Turkey often ask me where a woman’s place in this society is.

It’s a difficult question. Trying to determine this in Turkey as a nation is difficult. You can’t just base it on your observation. The subject is not widely written about, either.

In urban areas there are many open-minded and well-educated women who are willing and able to discuss and deal with problems and important issues. Women in managerial positions are usually well accepted in urban centers. On the whole, though, has Turkey come to a standstill in this area of development?

There were some interesting observations in an article in Radikal, “Turkish women left behind: as country progresses, there is doubt about a woman’s place,” as recent as Oct. 6, 2009. The article reports that Turkey continues to score low on the UNDP’s Human Development Index, despite an increase in Turkey’s life expectancy rates, literacy and gross national product over the past 27 years. Overall the country has slipped three places this year, and specifically the role of women in society has earned the worst mark. Turkey ranked 101 out of 109 countries in the 2009 Gender Empowerment Measure, part of the UNDP’s Human Development Index.

Grave concern arises for issues of abuse when the role of women in a society remains very low, and the country seems to have regressed in terms of gender empowerment according to the UN Human Development Index. Turkey as a nation seems to have a long way to go to empower its women politically and economically in order to achieve gender equality. It seems that Turkey is only ahead of Tonga, Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bangladesh and Yemen in the Gender Empowerment Measure. Turkey did score higher than Armenia and Iran.

The report considers factors such as poverty, gender, democracy, human rights, cultural liberty, etc. In the poverty index, Turkey is ranked 40 out of 135 countries; in the under-40-years mortality rate it was ranked 50; and in the literacy index it ranked 77. The lowest-ranked position for Turkey was in the gender empowerment measure. What does the future hold?