By Ece Toksabay
ANKARA: Turkey's parliament lost more than a fifth of its female deputies in Sunday's election, fuelling activists' concerns about women's rights as President Tayyip Erdogan strengthens his grip on power.
Women's groups and opposition politicians have criticised Erdogan, a devout Muslim, for condemning abortion, calling birth control "treason", and telling women they should have at least three children.
His AK Party won just under 50 percent of the vote, far exceeding the expectations even of party insiders and giving it a clear majority of around 317 seats in the 550-seat parliament.
But unofficial results showed only about 77 female lawmakers had been elected, compared with 97 in the previous vote in June, in which no party won an outright majority. That would give women some 14 percent of the seats, down from nearly 18 percent.
The chief reasons were a drop in support for the pro-Kurdish HDP party, and the fact that Erdogan's AKP fielded far fewer female candidates than five months earlier, even though it sharply increased its share of the vote.
"The post-election picture is grim for women. Decreased support for the HDP meant less female representation in parliament, as AK Party had cut its number of women candidates by 30," said Hulya Gulbahar, a prominent lawyer and women's rights activist.
HDP female lawmaker Filiz Kerestecioglu said: "Although we tried to change the face of the parliament by increasing female representation, sadly we failed, as a result of the system's male-dominated policies. For all the women of Turkey, being active in politics is still a big challenge."
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
International observers from the 57-nation OSCE and the Council of Europe said in a statement: "Women played an active role in the campaign, although they remain under-represented in political life.
"While the constitution guarantees gender equality, there are no special legal obligations for the parties to nominate women candidates."
Erdogan prefers to speak of gender "justice" rather than equality between the sexes, saying women and men cannot be equal as they are different creatures by nature.
Along with issues like contraception and abortion, campaigners are preoccupied by the high level of domestic violence against women.
According to a 2011 U.N. report, non-sexual physical violence committed by intimate partners was 10 times more likely in Turkey, which aspires to join the European Union, than in some European countries. Monitoring group Bianet says 281 women were murdered in 2014, up 31 percent from the previous year.
"Turkey's women's rights movement is concerned that the government's policies will encourage already dreadful levels of violence against women instead of struggling against it," Gulbahar told Reuters.
Reuters
