Women in Turkey face harassment and pressure in every sphere of life. In workplaces, schools, hospitals and courthouses, women continue to encounter discriminatory attitudes. These pressures have reached the point where women are scrutinized over their clothing and even their posts on social media.
In recent days, a woman lawyer was targeted and subjected to an investigation because of her clothing after posts she shared on social media.
Rezan Gezer, an executive of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) Istanbul Branch, spoke to ANF about the discrimination faced by women lawyers.
Although the number of women in law has increased, serious inequalities remain
Rezan Gezer stated that the male-dominated mindset is strongly felt in the practical fields of the legal profession and said: “Looking at the experiences of women lawyers working within a male-dominated justice system is of great importance both professionally and socially. Although the number of women in the field of law has increased in Turkey and around the world, serious inequalities still exist in positions of power and decision-making mechanisms.
Many factors lie behind these inequalities that have persisted from the past to the present. Among the foremost are the deeply rooted male-dominated mindset in the practical field of the profession and the continuation of attitudes in theoretical fields that render women invisible and exclude them. However, as throughout history, today we will continue to struggle against this male justice system together, with those who came before us, with our own generation and with the generations of women jurists who will come after us.
Because we women lawyers do not only follow legal cases; we also work to transform the language, approach and practice of law. In other words, while we practice our profession, we also resist the injustices within this system.”
Equality in access to justice must be ensured
Rezan Gezer emphasized that one of the most important demands in the ÖHD work regarding women lawyers is the principle of equality in women’s access to justice. Gezer said: “The work of ÖHD concerning women lawyers and the demands raised by women lawyers are generally shaped around equality in women’s access to justice, effective legal and state protection against male violence directed at women, gender-sensitive judicial processes and the protection of lawyers’ professional independence.
These efforts aim both to secure the professional rights of lawyers and to strengthen women’s legal protection and their demand for equal rights. As ÖHD, in all the cases we have followed, we have built our defenses based on the women’s liberation paradigm and have consistently maintained our presence in the field in this way. With this understanding, we have responded with the same sensitivity to all the problems faced by our women colleagues.
The demands of our women colleagues, of us, are often shaped around both professional equality and gender-based legal equality and security. For example, there are many demands such as genuine equality in bar associations rather than merely formal equality, concrete measures against gender-based violence and discrimination in professional life and judicial processes, the production of gender-focused policies by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations and local bar associations, and the elimination of cultural and structural discrimination. These are demands whose solutions are relatively straightforward yet capable of creating fundamental change.”
Kurdish women lawyers face greater pressure in political cases
Gezer also drew attention to the pressure faced by Kurdish women lawyers and continued: “Kurdish women lawyers feel greater pressure, especially when they take part in political cases. There are statements from colleagues working in the field and human rights reports addressing this situation. It is evaluated at the intersection of ethnic identity, gender, and human rights advocacy. Likewise, it is necessary to look at the statements of professional organizations on this matter. In particular, the fact that many colleagues from the ÖHD have been detained, arrested or subjected to judicial proceedings because of their professional activities clearly shows that the pressure is fundamentally linked to the issue of identity.
Beyond this, in the cases that we follow as an association, the attitudes of judicial authorities that we observe reveal that judicial power is being used as a tool of pressure.”
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