Polygamy and its effect on women's rights / Turkish law re religious marriages/polygamy

Submitted by yasemin (Canada), Apr 28, 2008 at 19:00

Enlightened thinking is the first step, but action based on having a moral sense is even better. How awful to be a willing participant in setting back women's status, particularly when those who have battled to gain some ground have done so under tremendous opposition and danger to themselves. I know these women personally. It is nauseating for me to watch someone blithely ignore what they have suffered to achieve.

Re polygamy

"At the international level, while polygamy is not explicitly prohibited in any international treaties, it violates such basic human rights as the right to protection of the dignity of women, the right to equality within the family and the right to equal protection of women under the law (von Struensee 2005). It is widely accepted that the practice of polygamy is inconsistent with article 16(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides that men and women are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, and article 16(1)(b) of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which guarantees the right to freely choose a spouse and enter into a marriage with free and full consent. Further, polygamy is inconsistent with article 23(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which requires state parties to take appropriate steps to ensure equality of rights and responsibilities of spouses as to marriage. Those provisions refer to the institution of marriage as based on the equality of the husband and wife. von Struensee (2004: 2, 21) argued that "the practice of polygamy directly contradicts the principle of equality because it grants one spouse the unilateral right to take multiple partners without spousal consent and then requires the first spouse to share the resources of the marriage as a result of that decision."

In 1994, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women focussed on the rights of women within the context of the family and analyzed articles of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women that relate to polygamy.⁵ Though the Committee accepted that the "form and concept of the family can vary from State to State,"⁶ the Committee was emphatic that polygamous marriages are not acceptable, because they violate women's right to equality with men. The Committee expressed its concern about practices in several countries as "[p]olygamous marriage contravenes a woman's right to equality with men, and can have such serious emotional and financial consequences for her and her dependants that such marriages ought to be discouraged and prohibited."⁷ The Committee concluded that in several states the continuing practice of polygamy violates constitutional guarantees of equal rights for women, as well as Article 5(a) of the Convention, which requires state parties to work toward the elimination of practices founded on sex-based prejudice or stereotypes." http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:QWawfVRQsi0J:www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/pubs/pubspr/0662420683/200511_0662420683-2_7_e.html+turkey+bigamy+women%27s+status&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

Turkish law regarding religious marriage

"The [Turkish] Civil Code clearly states that a religious marriage can only be held after the civil ceremony (Article 143 of the Civil
Code), otherwise, the couple is in breach of the Penal Code (Article230 of the Penal Code).

Furthermore, if a religious ceremony is conducted without documentary proof (i.e. the family book) that the civil ceremony has already been completed in accordance with the law, the person who conducts the religious ceremony, too, is considered to have committed a crime."

http://www.wwhr.org/images/CivilandPenalCodeReforms.pdf

"The Turkish New Penal Code as it was in the old code protects conjugal community with legal assurances. Penalty of imprisonment is given to people who marry for the second time although he/she is still married to someone else and to people marry with someone who is already married. (TPC: 230) Penalty of imprisonment is given to people who marry by hiding their real identity and to people marrying only through religious ways but not officially." http://en.ucansupurge.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=56

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