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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ISTANBUL 000012 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREF OSCE TU PHUM
SUBJECT: NGO LEADERS: WOMEN'S RIGHTS THREATENED BY GROWING 
CONSERVATISM 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: Women NGO leaders gathered for lunch 
hosted by the Consul General on December 17, 2008, commented 
on the growing conservatism on the part of the Turkish 
government (GOT) over the past year which ultimately impaired 
women's rights.  According to the leaders present, a tendency 
toward socially conservative government decision-making 
resulted in the closure of one domestic violence shelter and 
the loss of government funding for one of only two shelters 
for trafficking victims in Turkey.  They contended that 
positive change is limited in part due to a shortage of 
female politicians, and as March municipal elections 
approach, one attendee noted that only one female candidate 
has been nominated by any party to fill one of 3,225 mayoral 
offices in Turkey. End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) According to Ipek Ilkkaracan from Women for Women's 
Human Rights (WWHR), an independent NGO founded with the aim 
of promoting women's rights in Turkey and internationally, 
the GOT recently renewed for another 10 years its protocol 
with WWHR's Education Program for Women which has been in 
effect since 1996. The renewal came with some uncertainty, 
she explained, because an official of the Social Services and 
Child Protection Institution consistently expressed his 
concern that the women's human rights education program might 
harm the family. Ilkkaracan said the official expressed the 
same worry at the recent signing ceremony, despite the fact 
that the WWHR presented survey results showing that the 
relationships between the participants and their children and 
husbands greatly improved as a result of the training. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Physician Berna Eren, Executive Director of the 
Human Resource Development Foundation (HRDF) said that the 
term "family planning" was removed from the title of "Mother 
and Child Services and Family Planning Clinics" in 2002, 
after the AKP became the ruling party.  Now no preventative 
health services are provided, she said, only screenings. 
Additionally, because men have insisted that their wives not 
be seen by male doctors, she pointed out that these clinics 
are now staffed only by women.  Eren also related that 
beginning in July 2008, the Istanbul municipality reneged on 
its 2004 protocol to cover the rent of the HRDF shelter for 
trafficking victims. She said that the municipality explained 
that its inability to continue support was due to legislation 
prohibiting its funding of NGOs. Municipal support for this 
shelter was a crucial component of their funding and, if an 
outside source does not fill in the gap again as it did this 
year, she feared HRDF may have to close the shelter in July 
¶2009. Eren blamed the municipality's decision on growing 
conservative tendencies and the municipality's desire not to 
be associated with issues  related to the trafficking of 
women. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Canan Arin, lawyer and founding member of Mor Cati 
- a women's rights organization that also provides a domestic 
violence shelter in Istanbul - concurred with Eren's 
observations. She said the conservative trend in GOT actions 
also impacted the funding for Mor Cati's shelter. According 
to Arin, the district governor recently withdrew its funding 
to Mor Cati's  shelter without a clear explanation. Noting 
also that more female political participation might combat 
such decisions, she lamented that the female AKP minister and 
MPs have done nothing to encourage women's rights and gender 
equality.  "The right women need to be in power." Hulya 
Gulbahar from KADER, an association dedicated to increasing 
the percentage of women in politics by supporting women 
candidates through lobbying and campaigning, pointed out that 
so far parties have put forth only one female candidate for 
candidacy (pre-primary candidate) in the March municipal 
elections. The AKP party had yet to name a single female 
candidate, she said, despite its stated objective of having 
15 percent female representation in government.  Others 
agreed with her that this was 15 percent only in the 
municipal boards (city councils) and not at higher levels. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) When responding to a question about how to 
encourage female participation, Gulbahar and Ilkkaracan noted 
that access to politics is very expensive and political 
empowerment is inseparable from economic empowerment. 
Gulbahar explained that the cost of being a candidate for the 
office of mayor of a mid-sized district is around 500,000 YTL 
($333,333) beyond additional fees for application.  According 
to Ilkkaracan, because men are more economically powerful 
they will maintain political power until women "earn" their 
own. She continued by explaining that this situation will not 
change until the traditional roles of women allow for 
income-earning activities.  (Comment:  Turkey's 25 percent 
female workforce participation rate is the lowest in the 
 
ISTANBUL 00000012  002 OF 002 
 
 
OECD. End Comment.)  A recent time-use study found that 
Turkish women spend six hours daily on household chores and 
childcare while Turkish men spend on average less than one 
hour.   Without more childcare support, Ilkkaracan said, the 
average Turkish woman is challenged to find economic 
empowerment outside of the home. WWHR is working on a 
comparative survey project on time-use, childcare, and 
eldercare solutions in Mexico, France, South Korea, Spain, 
Netherlands, Sweden and Turkey, and Ilkkaracan said they plan 
to present the findings in May. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: All participants commented that this 
negative trend of growing government conservatism makes it 
more difficult to support women's rights and even broader 
women's issues, such as health and economic empowerment, in 
Turkey. To bolster the efforts of women's organizations, the 
Consulate General plans to support/provide/fund speakers from 
the United States for the WWHR time-use conference, as well 
as for a female entrepreneurship conference, both in May. The 
Consulate General is also planning events in the upcoming 
months to help raise breast cancer awareness by working with 
MEVA (Breast Cancer Foundation of Turkey). End Comment. 
Wiener