PM wrongly comments on ’women’s quota’

At the conference organized by the women’s branch of the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeated that he is against a "women’s quota" in Parliament.

"We acknowledge that applying quota is being disrespectful toward women. This means submitting women to men’s control. In other words, men will ask and women will enter Parliament.

This cannot be. What should be done instead is to clear the way for women and to provide a decent competition environment for them," he precisely said.

But Mr. Prime Minister is awfully wrong.

Without setting a "women’s quota" in Parliament, it is impossible for women to take the political stage.

In many European countries, starting with the Scandinavian countries, and in Latin America, applying quotas for women has given successful results.

It was also extremely useful to define "50-50 election parity" in French and Belgian constitutions.

Someone should tell this to Erdoğan

Questions to the prime minister
Someone should also show him the "Gender Gap-2008" report by the World Economic Forum, or WEF, and tell him that Turkey is ranked 123rd in the 130-country list, falling behind Iran, Bahrain, Ethiopia and Nepal.

And one should ask Mr. Prime Minister the following questions:

"Why is Turkey, bragging about being the 17th biggest economy in the world, when ranked among the lowest when it comes to the gender gap?"

"Why is the AKP government not giving a green light to the formation of a parliamentary sub-committee to follow gender equality?"

"Why is the AKP government allowing a melt-down of women organizations’ gains?"

The last example for this is about the Mor Çatı (Purple Roof) women’s shelter located in Beyoğlu, Istanbul.

Women’s shelters are the most critical tool in the fight against violence toward women in Turkey and in the world.

"Mor Çatı" is the first nongovernmental organization established for this struggle.

Established in the 1990s, Mor Çatı runs shelters to world standards. The translation is that the organization is significantly experienced in the subject matter.

Considering the fact that there is not enough women’s shelters in Turkey, as voiced by Emine Bozkurt, member of the European Parliament who has prepared reports about women in Turkey several times, the importance of Mor Çatı’s mission becomes crystal-clear.

Consequently, Mor Çatı signed a protocol with the Beyoğlu District Administration in 2005 to open a women’s shelter, to make this fight a state policy.

With the financial support of the World Bank, Mor Çatı made its mark with the first ever collaboration between a women’s organization and a state institution in Turkey.

The World Bank rewarded Mor Çatı for the project in Beyoğlu.

However, the organization began to struggle with financial issues after the World Bank support was cut. The Beyoğlu District Administration informed Mor Çatı a short while ago that they will not be able to work with the organization after Dec. 31 due to insufficient state subsidies.

We are destined to hit the bottom of the list
Mor Çatı is now in a hard spot.

Mor Çatı said in the statement sent that politicians, with the understanding of a social state, should create funds for the organization, already providing knowledge and experience.

The example clearly shows that the AKP government is pushing aside cooperation with women’s civil society organizations on women’s issues.

But without these NGOs, the government in Turkey cannot be successful in eliminating the gender gap. And the WEF reports will then always give the same result for Turkey concerning the gender gap.