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P 110849Z DEC 07
FM AMCONSUL ISTANBUL
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UNCLAS ISTANBUL 001045 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: GENDER EQUALITY IN TURKISH POLITICS: IS PARITY 
PLAUSIBLE? 
 
¶1. (U) At a joint Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation-ARI Movement 
conference entitled 'Young Women Fit For Politics', Turkish 
and Swedish MP's discussed women's role in policy-making. 
The Hjalmarson Foundation -- a democracy-development 
foundation tied to the Moderate party of Sweden -- and the 
ARI Movement -- an independent organization promoting 
youth-oriented, participatory solutions -- provided a forum 
to discuss the role women play in politics today, and the 
ways in which that role might be expanded in the future. 
While the Swedish MP's had little to offer beyond a mandatory 
quota system, the Turkish MPs had more nuanced and realistic 
assessments/approaches. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Cem Toker, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party 
(LDP), argued that gender parity in a vacuum is nonsense.  He 
said each party has to run the best candidate it can with a 
finite source of funding; if that candidate is a woman so be 
it, but you can not force a party to run non-viable 
candidates.  In theory gender equality is a great thing, but 
in Turkey the reality is something different, he argued.  The 
average Turkish citizen has a 4th grade education, the 
average Turkish woman lower still.  Add to that the lack of 
real support, even within the feminist community, for female 
candidates, he said.  The LDP joined KADER -- Turkey's 
largest women's organization -- in a series of workshops 
designed to teach women in the South East about political 
participation.  At the end of the workshop, however, KADER 
could not recommend a single woman that they would be willing 
to back in a local election, he claimed. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Canan Kalsin, Justice and Development Party (AKP) 
MP, said that she was proud of the progress that her party 
has made; out of the 50 women in parliament, 30 are AKP MPs. 
That said, once she deviated from the 'all is well with AKP' 
party-line she recognized that there were fissures in party 
leadership, at least at her level, with regard to female 
candidates.  Women, she said, when allowed to participate in 
politics are cubby-holed into 'women's issues', as she was 
when she first joined AKP.  "Only after making a noise" was 
she promoted to her current position, Associate Provisional 
Director of External Affairs.  Kalsin ended by saying that 
while progress has been made, meaningful participation by 
women in Turkish politics remains a challenge. 
 
¶4. (SBU) A similar debate has been taking place in op-ed 
columns in the Turkish Press.  Progressive columnists argue 
that by banning headscarves at universities, women suffer 
double discrimination: once at the hands of paternal Islam, 
and again by the patriarchal guarantors of secularism.  Both 
of which, they note, disproportionately affect women.  Devout 
Muslim men are neither required to wear particular religious 
garb, nor are they required to disrobe in any way before 
entering public buildings. 
 
¶4. (SBU) COMMENT: None of the 30 AKP female MPs wears an 
Islamic headscarf, the wearing of which is banned on the 
floor of parliament by by-laws dictating an MP dress-code. 
However, the wives of most AKP elected officials and senior 
bureaucrats do cover their heads, and a "covered wife" is 
widely viewed as a career asset if not a political litmus 
test.  When asked whether Kalsin's choice to not cover her 
head affected her ability to rise within the party, she 
answered "no", albeit after a prolonged pause.  END COMMENT 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WIENER