Women's rights as human rights: The Turkish case

Abstract

The concept of human rights has been seen in many non-western countries as a tool of western colonialism, used self righteously by western countries to criticize non-western ones for human rights abuses. The Turkish case, however, is different. Even though one could depict a complicated love-hate relationship between the Turks and the West, it is also true that Turks began to adopt European ways following their failure to conquer Europe in the 18th century (Heper et al eds., 1993). They fought a national war of independence against western powers between 1919 and 1922 to establish the Turkish Republic, but once the Republic was established, it was western culture, laws and norms that the state formally adopted and the people mainly complied with. There were reactions to westernization, both from the left that was threatened by capitalist exploitation and the right that was concerned to preserve traditional norms, at different stages of Republican history. However, by the year 2000, at a time when Turkey has become a candidate for membership in the European Union, there is a large consensus both at the level of the state and of society that becoming part of Europe and the West is what is desired. Those who were once wary of the West agree that Turkey can benefit from human rights standards upheld in Europe. Along with the social democrats, even the Muslim right supports integration to Europe. It is in this context of increasing endorsement of integration with the West through Europe and wider legitimacy accorded to human rights that I shall discuss women's rights as human rights in Turkey. Human right norms have in fact played a significant role in promoting women's rights in Turkey, and while it is difficult to establish causal relationships between developments which ameliorate women's standing and the factors which account for these results, it is possible to point to the ways in which human rights norms have been used in promoting women's causes. In this essay, I intend to do the latter and analyze how women's human rights norms helped women in the local context precipitate the advancement of their cause in Turkey. Human rights norms have not merely given legitimacy to