From a tough year to an even tougher one for women

In the last column of the year, I had intended to make an evaluation in terms of the struggle for women's equality, but I didn't even feel the need to review the notes I had tried to keep all year, because mentioning what happened in the last few days will clearly reveal what we have experienced and what we will experience in the coming year in terms of women's rights and gender equality.

Let's start with the budget. The 2025 budget was passed in the parliament as it came from the Presidential Palace, despite the opposition's motions. The responsibility of budget control, one of the most important duties of the parliament, was ignored this year as well. The parliament was once again rendered dysfunctional. Of course, the presidential decrees of the one-man regime are one of the powers that the government has seized with its self-authorization. With both the budget policy and the decree power, the clues about how we spent this year and what will happen to us in the coming year have become clear in recent days.

The budget allocated for women's empowerment is five billion liras. Considering that women make up half of society, it is necessary to see and say that this paltry allocation is a figure that will prevent women's empowerment. The budget of the Family and Social Services Ministry allocates only five billion for women and 17 billion for the family. I expect that many people will think that since women are also family members, they will get an extra share from this 17 billion. But the issue is not that simple. Let me try to explain why it is not simple by reminding you of the decree of the Family Institute, which was established in the last days of the year. I always write that the concept of family is a code word in the language of this government that is used to reinforce male domination in the family and society. Egalitarian people should look at the issue by deciphering this code word.

The presidential decree published in the Official Gazette dated Dec. 25 and numbered 32763 established the Family Institute. There is no definition of family in the decree establishing the Institute. There is also no reference to the principle of “family based on the equality of spouses” in the Constitution and the law. The 4-article decree's purpose, definition, and establishment points are quite vague. For example, in Article 3, the establishment is limited to the phrase “the duties and authority given in this decree and the relevant legislation...”. When referring to the relevant legislation, it is unclear which articles of which legislation are framed. There was not even a need to write it. Article 4 lists the duties and powers of the Institute. (1) The duties and powers of the Institute are as follows: a) To carry out research covering all ministry activities in order to protect and strengthen the family structure and values, to increase the social welfare of the family, to create data for policies on women, children, disabled, elderly, relatives of martyrs, veterans, and relatives of veterans. b) To carry out continuous national and strategic research activities related to the field of activity of the Ministry with an intersectoral and interdisciplinary approach. This is all. The undefined family structure will be tried to be protected and strengthened with the perception of imaginary 'values' in the minds of who knows who.

In the summer, it was announced that such a structure would operate under the Justice Academy. It reminded us of the concept of “family guardianship” in the Iranian Constitution and raised the question of whether a sheikhdom office was being created for the family. The fact that it will be located within the Family Ministry, and not within the Justice Academy, which is part of the judiciary, seems to have (for the time being) reduced the suspicion of this. However, the fact that it is located in the administrative structure instead of the judiciary is not without problems. The fact that it is presented only as a research institute is also suspicious that we cannot find answers to the questions 'What kind of family, what values?’ It is clear beyond doubt that there is no mention of a family based on equality between men and women. When counting the families to be surveyed, women, who are half of the society, are included, while disadvantaged segments of society in need of care, special attention, and support are counted together. But guess who is not included? No men. Should we think that the government envisions “fatherless families”? Or can men be counted with these disadvantaged groups? How dare we think that they were deliberately left out? Should we make sure that women and men are not considered equal human beings by birth?

The anti-gender equality government's family policy is also based on male domination and contradicts the principle of equality of spouses enshrined in the Constitution and the Civil Code, the constitution of social life. Although at first glance it appears to be a clumsy, hastily written decree, years of experience have shown that this decree, which is undefined, whose limits of duties and powers are vague, and whose articles in the existing legislation are not specified, is deliberately left like this. Depending on the time and place, the government chooses this method in order to fill it with whatever it needs. Let's also keep in mind the possibility that, due to social objections, the establishment of a “family guardianship” for women under the Family Ministry instead of the Justice Academy could be a political move to realize an arrangement similar to “family guardianship” for women by walking a few steps further away, walking in the snow and leaving no trace.

On the same day, we learned from the Official Gazette of the same date that the Population Policies Board had been established by another presidential decree. Population policies are always suspicious. For me, it means designing society. It evokes fascist approaches. The possibility of policies that will open the door to racist and sexist regulations is very high. The Population Policies Board includes many public institutions from the Interior and Justice ministrites to the Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), Family Ministry, and Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK). The vice president has been made the chair of the board and the Family and Social Services Minister has been assigned as the chair by proxy in meetings he cannot attend. The Education, Youth and Sports ministries are also on the Board. It seems that a total population policy will be planned and women will be assigned the task of fertility. It is possible to come up with an approach as if women's raison d'être is the reproduction of the population. Considering the budget allocated to women, the establishment of the Family Institute together with the Population Policies Board makes it clear that a much stronger struggle for equality awaits women in 2025.

As if this was not enough, the news about the Violence Commission working in the Parliament is further worrisome. The Parliamentary Commission to Investigate Violence and Discrimination against Women has tried to understand violence against women with the TÜİK data. The data, which we can trust as much as we trust the results of inflation, and the years they belong to are very remarkable. “While 37 percent of women felt safe walking alone at night in 2004, this rate increased to 56 percent in 2023.” In 2023, almost half of women in our country are still worried about walking alone at night. We women know that the reality is much higher than this figure. What is noteworthy about the data on violence is the selection of 2014 data. “When it is considered as physical or sexual violence, it is noted that the rate was 41.9 percent in 2008 and 37.5 percent in 2014.”

This information tells us two things. The first is that the fact that no research on violence has been conducted by the TÜİK except in 2008 and 2014 is now written in the parliamentary records. The second is that it reveals the importance of the Istanbul Convention. According to women's movement data, gender-based violence decreased during the years of the ratification of the Istanbul Convention and the adoption of the Law on Violence No. 6284. The reason was that the perpetrators thought that the political will was determined to combat violence, so to speak, and “watching their steps”, in other words, they acted cautiously due to the possibility of severe punishment. Because 2014 is the year the Istanbul Convention entered into force for Turkey. With the presumption that the Convention will now be implemented, perpetrators have chosen to be more careful when designing acts of physical violence - which was probably chosen because they did not want to use the term femicide - and sexual violence. The TÜİK representative shared a result that is exactly in line with the observation that violence is political.

It takes courage for the TÜİK to conduct research on the reflection of the illegal unilateral withdrawal from the Convention on the data on violence and its cost on women's lives. The 2014 results give the AKP government an opportunity to take solace. The 2014 data, which is presented to cover up the increase in violence due to anti-women and anti-gender equality political decisions in the past 10 years, can only convince Hulki Cevizoğlu, the male chairman of the Commission, who we can assume is unaware of the principles of combating gender-based violence. As a tough year comes to an end, let us prepare for an even tougher year, but let us celebrate ourselves and each other in order to gather energy for the struggle for women's equality, the struggle for labor, the search for equal citizenship, democracy and peace. Happy New Year.

Turkish government establishes Family Institute, Population Policies BoardWomen