The role of women in contemporary Turkey is defined by an ongoing gender equality struggle. Many

Although the issue of women’s rights has attracted international recognition and support, women still face many inequalities and barriers. Gender-based violence and economic discrimination are problems in many parts of the world.

Women’s rights in Iran or the Middle East has always been an arguable issue. Although there rights have been changed throughout the centuries they were never really compared equal to men or noone really accepted them. Specially for women in Iran, they barely had any rights in culture, marriage or other aspects of their lives. In the following essay you will read about the everday lives of Middle Eastern women.

In the world today, women have a say in what they want to do and things that they desire to do. Back in the day, before the 1800’s, women had to be submissive to their male counterparts and do according to what was required of them. In the end, this led to the demeaning of the woman and the concept that women were inferior to men. Even though this concept and perception changed, there have been some countries and regions of the world that have not yet recognized the equality that women deserve. Such areas do not allow women to vote, attend school, have a say in the community, and the women are at the mercy of their husbands, fathers or male superiors (Hartmann, Susan M).

All over the globe, violence and discrimination against women and girls violates their human rights and severely compromised their perception of equality. Culture, false beliefs and ancient traditions, such as early marriage, the nuclear family, gender-based discrimination, which lead to violence against women and femicide, destroyed young girls ' mental and physical wellbeing and self-esteem by supporting the ideas that gender-based discrimination and inequality is acceptable in our societies.

Women rights movement’s dates back to the nineteenth century as the female gender was seeking to have a place in the society where they have their rights and entitlement fairly given to them. It was instigated by the fact that the male population by making them feel as less beings in the society. This is because they were not entitled to having their views brought out. However, in the 1970’s efforts to secure equal rights for women by eradicating gender discrimination put by institution, laws and various behavioural pattern meet serious activism (Barrett. 2014). The reforms enjoyed currently concerning women empowerment is as a result of all the atrocities that they went through at this time. It is, therefore, evident to say that the challenges faced by women in the 1970’s rights movement gave birth to new opportunities such as coming up with severe laws on gender discrimination, pushed for the Title IX law and defining rape as a crime.

The Ottoman Empire too, treated women like they didn’t matter. Even the “elite Turkish women found themselves excluded and often veiled…page 644” Furthermore, official censuses didn’t even include women, just to show how insignificant they were to society. The one thing that women of the Ottoman Empire had that the women of the Mughal Empire didn’t was a voice in the Royal Court. The law permitted the women to have rights to their property, marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Therefore, in comparison, it seems the Turkish women had more means to advocate for themselves than the women in

Sadly, many countries and/or communities still have that macho way of thinking, believing that a woman only has two jobs in life, serve her family and bear children. Unfortunately, in many cases, these women are being mistreated, beaten and/or shut down. We can see examples of these situations in some countries of the Middle East.

Honour Killing’ is a cultural crime or a cultural tradition prevalent amongst non-Caucasian Societies which perceive women as bearers of family honour. 'Honour Killing ' of women can be defined as acts of murder in which 'a woman is killed for her actual or perceived immoral behavior. Indian cultures are very deep rooted. An honour killing (also called a customary killing) is the murder of a (typically female) family or clan member by one or more fellow (mostly male) family members, in which the perpetrators (and potentially the wider community) believe the victim to have brought dishonour upon the family, clan, or community. Many young people in India have been done to death every year owing to ‘Honour Killings.’ It is because so called honour killings are based on the belief, deeply rooted in Indian cultures, which consider the women as objects and commodities, and not as human beings endowed with dignity and rights. Most honour killings occur in countries like India where the concept of women is considered as a vessel of the family reputation. This paper is an attempt to tackle the very important issue of a cultural crime that is magnifying day by day like a monster untamed. The Khap

Ann Borges Professor O’Neil The Silenced Speak Up: Women Fight for Equality in the Ottoman Empire December 2nd, 2014 The French Revolution of 1789 influenced an era of reform that transformed Western Civilizations into flourishing societies as the weakened Ottoman Empire scrambled to pick of the pieces of its once thriving dominion. As the Ottoman Empire felt the heat of a substantial loss of territory, the constant defeat of their military that had persisted for over two hundred years, and the large amount of debt they acquired, they looked towards the booming Western nations for inspiration and adapted their laws and customs in the form of dramatic legal and social reforms. Among these reforms was a collective effort to westernize the role of women in the Ottoman Empire, attempting to erase the idea of women as property and the stigma of oppression that came with the lack of

In the United States, what comes to our mind about the Middle East (Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran)? Do you think of unequal treatment for women? Do you think of terrorist? There a lot of stereotypes when we think about the Middle East. Sometimes, we cannot always believe what we hear on the news. The stereotypes that we commonly use is that women are being oppressed, and the whole country is filled up with terrorists.

Young women not receiving an education hurt not just themselves, but also their families and the societies they live in. Girls suffer because they miss out on opportunities to socialize, acquire knowledge, and gain the skills and sense of autonomy needed to improve their personal well-being and their lot in life. Child marriage is also another reason for parents to take their daughters out of school. Parents expect their daughters to get married and have kids before the age of 18, therefore, young women don’t have the chance to complete

The creation of YPJ/YJA-STAR women guerilla units within the PKK ideology creates a sense of freedom and a step towards liberation. It could be noted that the transformation of gender roles within the Kurdish community, has transformed the appearance of the eastern women as no longer the oppressed victim, in which today the Kurdish female fighters are “presented as a novel phenomenon (Dirik, 2015).” Conversely, the Kurdish women’s freedom movement has been appealing in the field of war since the 19th century, in which the world has largely ignored. The intensification of the Kurdish female fighters in the movement can be understood as a reaction against the western world, as it believes that “imperialist states use this as a justification to

Gender roles and the immense education gap in Turkey has been quite a problem. Asena Caner writes on the severity of the situation and shows that the bias culture against girls is the exact reason they have such a poor time in school due to its conservative society. There was a major reform that took place in Turkey and it was sure to help the dropout rates among both boys and girls, but it still had some trouble fixing the gender gap placed on all girls. The ultimate goal is to utilize Turkeys amazing environment to research the many effects of gender roles as a society since it is mostly similar to modernity and traditionalism which allows for a broad range of study. Not many countries have such a problem as that of Turkey, in the fact that the female gender gap is still so detrimental in the achievement in the schools.

The modern world has resulted in earnings, wages and salaries for the women similar to that of men, but the women are continuously facing inequalities in the work force (Andal 2002). This can be attributed to the pre-established notion that women shall not be given access to finance or communication with the world outside of the home which is highly unethical and unfair (Eisenhower, 2002). In the past, they were considered as the underprivileged ones which were not thought of having equal rights but this fact has changed now. For instance, the status of women can be explicitly defined as the equality and the freedom of the women.

The oppression of women is based on false assumption and preconceived notions by the male domination world, has been obvious and responsible for paving the way for serious gender issues to emerge. Due to the narrow realms of activity in society, deprived from essential human rights, restricted educations scope, open to unhealthy physical and mental abuse, this society has not given women the opportunity to rise to their full potential. The impact of gender discrimination has not only affected the future of the women today but it has resulted in the slow progress of human mind in general.