VZCZCXYZ0005
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAK #1703 3291604
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 251604Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1339
INFO RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS ANKARA 001703 
 
SIPDIS 
 
PLEASE PASS TO S/GWI AND EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN PREL KPAO PHUM
SUBJECT: NOMINATION FOR 2009 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN OF COURAGE 
AWARD 
 
REF: SECSTATE 111471 
 
¶1. (SBU) Full Name: Ilknur Ustun 
Job Titles/ Associations: President of KA-DER Ankara Branch, 
Turkey Coordinator for the European Women Lobby, and General 
Coordinator for Women Coalition 
Date of Birth: May 18, 1965 
Country of Birth: Turkey 
Citizenship: Turkish 
Address: Bulten Sokak 51/25 Kavaklidere, Ankara 
Phone Number:  90-542-681-12-22 
E-mail: ilk 3@yahoo.com 
Passport Number: TR-L 916151 
Languages: Turkish 
 
¶2. (U) Embassy Ankara would like to nominate Ilknur Ustun, 
President of the Association to Support and Educate Female 
Candidates (KA-DER) Ankara Branch, Turkey Coordinator for the 
European Lobby, and General Coordinator for the Woman 
Coalition for the Secretary's International Women of Courage 
award.  Ms. Ustun has been actively working on women's issues 
for 20 years and she has been the president of KA-DER's 
Ankara branch for the past six years.  She has displayed 
outstanding courage through her efforts to eliminate 
discrimination against women in every walk of life, with a 
specific focus on increasing women's participation in 
politics. 
 
¶3. (U) As an activist, one of Ms. Ustun's main areas of 
success is her ability to bring together Turkish women from 
different segments of society such as Kurdish women, women 
with headscarves, secular women, and feminists to work as a 
team and to overcome some of the traditional differences in 
Turkish society.  Her contributions to the feminist movement 
have resulted in significant gains for women and paved the 
way for enactment of Civil Code reforms.  The new code 
establishes provisions for the equal division of property, 
sets 18 as the legal minimum age of marriage for both women 
and men, gives the same inheritance rights to children born 
outside marriage as those born to married parents, and allows 
single parents to adopt children. 
 
¶4. (U) Ms. Ustun has been trying to eliminate the 
"glass-ceiling" for women in politics and to sensitize local 
administrations, governments, and political parties with 
regard to gender issues in society.  Ms. Ustun has 
successfully lobbied for the establishment of equality 
committees at all levels of government.  As a result of her 
relentless efforts, she contributed to the establishment of 
the parliamentary Committee on Equal Opportunities for Men 
and Women in March 2009.  In addition to this, as a member of 
the European Women Lobby (an umbrella organization formed by 
2000 women NGOs from EU and candidate countries), she 
launched and coordinated campaigns to increase female 
participation in local elections, such as the "50/50 
equality" and "parity" campaigns.  Because of her gender 
mainstreaming work, seven women became candidates for village 
headman-ship (muhtar) in the March 2009 local elections. 
This was an impressive accomplishment in the face of 
overwhelming numerical male domination of local Turkish 
politics. 
 
¶5. (U) Ms. Ustun has faced both open and veiled threats while 
working on women's issues. When the GOT wanted to regulate 
the issue of adultery in the Turkish Penal Code amendments, 
Ms. Ustun led female members of NGOs to launch a protest 
campaign. One of the acts of protest was to march to the 
Turkish parliament with over 1,000 women assembled from all 
over Turkey.  After this event, a fundamentalist newspaper, 
Vakit, labeled Ms. Ustun as a "dishonorable" women on its 
front page and by doing so, Ms. Ustun believes that the 
newspaper made her as a target for assassination.  As an 
indirect threat and form of harassment, state officials 
occasionally ask her details of her identification 
information due to her activism in the southeast. 
 
¶6. (U) Embassy Ankara is nominating Ilknur Ustun for the 2009 
International Women of Courage award. Please direct your 
questions to Political officer Rudney Hunter at 
hunterrm@state.gov. 
 
JEFFREY 
 
           "Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s 
gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"