Bravo, Mrs. Erdoğan

Indeed it is not usual for prime ministers’ wives to make such visits, and Mrs. Erdoğan should be congratulated for her pragmatic steps to help her country. Emine Erdoğan is a rather impressive lady. I have heard frequently over the years that she is greatly responsible for her husband’s success and many of his successful policies. Whether that is true or not I would not like to say, but from her performance in Brussels she certainly came across as a confident and dynamic woman. During her busy program she delivered a number of speeches with far more vigor and self-assurance than many experienced ministers and politicians in the EU. Furthermore she also projected a great passion for the subjects that she talked about.

Mrs. Erdoğan has been very active in Turkey on many issues, including those related to women. She frequently travels around the country trying to convince rural families to send their daughters to school and on to higher education. Furthermore, she has also managed to convince the mothers of many of these daughters to pursue their own education, too, including in some cases simply learning how to read and write, which is no small feat. Unfortunately in some areas in Turkey it is still considered acceptable and even normal for women to receive no formal education at all. Instead they simply stay at home -- cooking, cleaning and doing manual labor . This is certainly not what Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, envisaged for the ladies of his country back in 1923.

Atatürk made it very clear how he saw the role of women. He believed that men and women should have the same equal rights, famously saying: “Our nation has made up its mind to be a powerful nation. One of the requirements of today is that we should ensure the advance of our women in all respects. Therefore, our women, like our men, will be enlightened and well educated.” Mrs. Erdoğan is striving to achieve this goal. Of course Mrs. Erdoğan’s work is only a small step, and there is still a very long way to go. This was underscored by Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle, who also spoke at the European Parliament with Mrs. Erdoğan.

Commissioner Füle said on women’s access to education that while the gender gap in primary education had been reduced in recent years, in part due to the broad-based “Let’s go to school” campaign by the government, it needed to be maintained and improved. This could be achieved by ensuring that girls continue to attend school at a later age and by identifying and reaching out to school dropouts. He also stressed the ongoing need for the Turkish government to improve women’s access to employment, in particular in rural areas. Turkey ranks last among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries when it comes to women’s participation in the labor market. Additionally, surveys show that the situation of women in the Turkish labor market is fragile, as many are employed in the informal sector. As in the EU, overall women earn less than men for work of equal value. He also went on to say that Turkey needs to further encourage women’s representation in politics at both the national and regional levels, as the latest local elections of 2009 confirm there is a significant lack of women. All parties need to place a sufficient number of female candidates in eligible positions.

Probably one of the most worrying aspects in Turkey with respect to women, and certainly the most talked about in the EU media, has been domestic violence and in particular the infamous honor killings. Therefore it is to be welcomed that Turkey has increased its efforts to prevent such horrendous killings and domestic violence. Most notably, courts have started giving heavy prison sentences, including life sentences, to the perpetrators of such crimes, which is a very positive step. Nevertheless, the Turkish government needs to intensify these efforts, by making women fully aware of their rights and by increasing the number of shelters for female victims of domestic violence so that they feel they have a place to turn to rather than continuing to live in fear of their husbands and others.