Talking about the various problems faced by women in Turkey such as domestic violence, forced prostitution and early marriages, Milliyet’s Hurşit Güneş says the remedy for all the problems of women is their participation in the workforce in an equal and freer way. However, he says women’s participation in the workforce in Turkey is very limited. “It is not easy for the women whose families migrate to cities from rural areas to find jobs in the city. When they give birth, they lose all their chances of finding a job. It is almost impossible for a non-working woman to have financial independence. Unless she inherits some property from her father, she is not financially independent. Even this would not make her as free as a working woman because she has not proven herself and her success in the eyes of society,” says Güneş. The way to ensure women are able work for a fair wage, according to Güneş, can be achieved through the education of women and the state’s encouragement of women’s employment. “In brief, a non-working woman is not free,” he suggests.Akşam’s Deniz Ülke Arıboğan thinks that when some women start competing in all the fields of life, they start competing for all the other women who do not participate in the race. “We run for our children and grandchildren despite thousand-year-old restrictions, prejudices, pressures and all the obstacles in order to eliminate all of them, and the paths we run through are opened,” she says.
Arıboğan thinks women do many tasks at the same time as they make their families happy, take care of their children, improve their careers and earn money. “No matter our attire, ethnicity or the language which we sing our lullabies in, we, working women, are running in the same relay race,” she adds.
Vatan’s Mutlu Tönbekici points to the widespread use of “lady” instead of “woman” in Turkey, saying she wonders how Women’s Day will be celebrated in a country which falls short of calling its women “women.” Recalling how a Turkish folk singer celebrated a previous women’s day by saying, “I congratulate all the ladies on the occasion of women’s day,” she quips: “Let’s change the name of this day to ladies’ day. If we are so ashamed of referring to women as women, let us not force ourselves to do so.”
Yeni Şafak’s Teodora Doni complains that the women of this nation who had been treated with great respect for centuries are unfortunately the victims of many problems today. “They are exposed to domestic violence, forced to become sex workers, their right to have access to education is violated and covered women are turned back from the gates of universities just because of their headscarves,” Doni cites as some of the problems faced by Turkey’s women today.
