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July 25, 2008 12:17:33 PM CDT

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Turkey's Women Fight for Equal Rights—Again

Posted Oct 3, 07 4:09 AM CDT in World 

(Newser) – Turkish women are up in arms after a draft of the country's new constitution deemed them a "vulnerable" group in "need of protection," the BBC reports. Over 80 activist groups have slammed the document, which they say inserted the clause in place of language that would have committed the government to promoting equality. "We don't need protection. We need equality," said one activist.  

Turkey's current constitution includes an equality provision. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made passing the new constitution a key goal following his re-election in July. The document has also drawn criticism over a provision that would allow Islamic women to wear headscarves in Turkish universities—currently banned under the country's rigidly secularist law.

Source BBC

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during the Turkish Cultural Center second annual friendship dinner, Friday, Sept. 28, 2007, in New York. In the background is a photo of Mustafa Kemal...   (Associated Press)
Turkish women wave national flags as they hold banners with the pictures of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 15, 2007. A demonstration was held to protest a possible...   (Associated Press)
Girls wearing Islamic head scarves play in a park in Istanbul, Turkey, July 22, 2004. Turkey's Islamic-rooted prime minister called Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2007 for lifting a ban on women wearing head scarves...   (Associated Press)
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Turkey  • women's rights  • Recep Tayyip Erdogan  • constitution


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