Our Fight Will Continue until There Are 300 Women Deputies

General Elections in Turkey ended in June 24. According to the unofficial results, there are 104 women deputies, which make 1 of 6 of the Parliament.

We interviewed Nuray Karaoğlu from KA.DER (a women’s organization which advocates equal representation of women and men in all fields of life) and Sevna Somuncuoğlu from Demir Leblebi Association (another women’s organization) about their expectations from the Parliament.

We have left the general elections behind. There are 600 deputies in the Parliament now. 497 of them are male and 104 are female. Why the number of women deputies is so low and how does this situation affect female voters?

Sevna Somuncuoğlu: Being a woman in politics is difficult in every part of the world but it’s more difficult in countries such ours. Our electoral system is based on blocking multi-vocality and hierarchy in political parties prevents women from doing politics. But I think it is even harder to overcome intangible obstacles. Here we face patriarchy again. How many women are there when deciding the deputy candidate lists? How many women are there in top managements of political parties? I believe there will be difference only when we will have different answers to those questions.

If the rate of representation is low, your voice would be heard only that much. Aside from the women deputy numbers, we should also regard how much they believe in women’s solidarity. There are 104 women deputies but not all of them are concerned about women’s problems. So, as voters, we have to explain the importance of women’s issues first and invite a handful of women deputies to be in solidarity regardless of their political parties and then make our voices heard.

Parliamentary system has come to an end. How will the new system affect women in the Parliament? What do you think the primary works of women deputies will be?

Nuray Karaoğlu: We will see all together what the new system brings. It is important for women deputies to become partners in making effective decisions about woman issue, regardless of their parties. They have to become together and discuss, at least. All in all, change in the system does not mean change in male dominance in the system. We need a different mindset about gender equality.