Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-pfhbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-09T05:11:17.002Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Turkish Secular Law in Changing the Lives of Rural Muslim Women, 1950–1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

June Starr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The suppression of Islamic family law and the introduction of secular family law to govern family life in Turkey created a legal and regulatory environment that supported more egalitarian relationships within the rural household. Despite the lack of an organized political movement, by 1950 rural Muslim women had begun to use the courts in divorce and other conflicts, suggesting that Ataturk's reforms had diffused to the Anatolian provinces by this time. Female-initiated cases, in conjunction with other behavior such as reducing family size and pushing husbands to leave the extended patriarchal households of their fathers, indicate that rural Islamic women were striving toward more autonomy in their lives. This picture offers a sharp contrast to the image of the passive, submissive rural Islamic woman described in much of the social science literature on Turkey. It suggests instead that rural women were active participants in changing their life situations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , 1989 , pp. 497 - 523
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I wish to thank all those who helped in the preparation of this paper: Rose Coser, for her sustained interest, as well as Shari Diamond, Sally Merry, Susan Silbey, Carol Seron, Frank Munger, Robert Kidder, Bill Arens, Jane Collier, Pierre Oberling, Heath Lowry, Clark Sorensen, and Beverly Birns. While he was a research assistant, Ricardo Senno helped prepare the tables on the reduction in household size.

References

References

ABADAN-UNAT, Nermin (1986) “Turkish Migration to Europe and the Middle East: Its Impact on Social Structure and Social Legislation,” in Michalak, L. O. and Salacuse, J. W. (eds.), Social Legislation in the Contemporary Middle East. Berkeley: University of California, Institute of International Studies.Google Scholar
ABADAN-UNAT, Nermin (1981a) “Social Change and Turkish Women,” in Abadan-Unat, N. (ed.), Women in Turkish Society. Leiden: E. J. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ABADAN-UNAT, Nermin (1981b) “Introduction,” in Women in Turkish Society, Leiden: E. J. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ABADAN-UNAT, Nermin (1977) “Implications of Migration on Emancipation and Pseudo-Emancipation on Turkish Women.” 2 International Migration Review 54.Google Scholar
ANSAY, Tuğrul (1983) “Review of Mary Zwahlen's Le divorce en Turquie (Contribution à l'étude de la réception du Code Civil Suisse),” 31 The American Journal of Comparative Law 751.Google Scholar
ANSAY, Tuğrul, and Dan, WALLACE Jr. (1966) Introduction to Turkish Law. Ankara: Society of Comparative Law, Turkey and the Middle East, Technical University Faculty of Administrative Sciences.Google Scholar
BODRUM İLÇESİNİN 1965 Yιlιna ait Gênel Nüfus Sayιmι (General Population Statistics) (1965) [Census of Bodrum district.] Document in Bodrum Census Bureau. Copy on file with the author.Google Scholar
COLLIER, Jane (1974) “Women in Politics,” in Rosaldo, M. and Lamphere, L. (eds.), Women, Culture, and Society. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
COŞER, Fatma Mansur (1978) “Women in Turkish Society,” in Beck, L. and Keddie, N. (eds.), Women in the Muslim World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
CUNIET, Vital (1894) Histoire de VAsie Mineure. Paris.Google Scholar
DEFENSE MAPPING AGENCY (1984). Gazetteer of Turkey. Washington, D.C.: Defense Department.Google Scholar
DEGLER, Carl N. (1980) At Odds: Women and the Family in America from the Revolution to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
DOBASH, R. Emerson, and Russell, DOBASH (1979) Violence Against Wives: A Case Against the Patriarchy. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
DUBEN, Alan (1985) “Turkish Families and Households in Historical Perspective,” 10 Journal of Family History 75.Google Scholar
EPSTEIN, Scarlett T., and Darrell, JACKSON (1977) “Paradigms and Perspectives: A Cross-Cultural Approach to Population Growth and Rural Poverty,” in Epstein, S. and Jackson, D. (eds.), The Feasibility of Fertility Planning. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
ERDER, Leila (1981) “The Women of Turkey: A Demographic Overview,” in Abadan-Unat, N. (ed.), Women in Turkish Society. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
FALLERS, Lloyd A. (1974) The Social Anthropology of the Nation State. Chicago: Aidine.Google Scholar
FALLERS, Lloyd A., and Margaret C., FALLERS (1976) “Sex Roles in Edremit,” in Peristiany, J. G. (ed.), Mediterranean Family Structures. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
GALANTI, Avram (1946) Bodrum Tarihine Ek [An addition to Bodrum's history], 2 Vols. Istanbul: Basimevi.Google Scholar
GRUNEBAUM, Gustave E. von (1962) Medieval Islam: A Study in Cultural Orientation, 2nd Ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
İSTATISTIK ÜMUM MURDURLUĞU (1965) Gênel Nüfus Sayιmι (General Population Statistics), idari Bolunus. 24. 10. 1965). (Census of Turkey, 1965). Ankara.Google Scholar
İSTATISTIK ÜMUM MURDURLUĞU (1950) Umumî Nüfus Sayιmι. Rećensement Général de la Population (Du 22–Octobre–1950). (Census of Turkey, 1950). Neşriyat Publication, No. 359, Ankara. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Başvekalet Presidence du conceil office central de statistique. Ankara.Google Scholar
İSTATISTIK ÜMUM MURDURLUĞU (1929) Umumî Nüfus Tahrιrι. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Başvekalet. (Census of Turkey, 1927) 28 Oct. 1927. Ankara. Husnutabiat Mabaasι.Google Scholar
KÂĞITÇIBAŞI, Ciğdem and Diane, SUNAR (eds.) (1982) “Introduction,” in Sex, Roles, Family and Community in Turkey. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
KANDIYOTI, Deniz (1976) “Social Change and Family Structure in a Turkish Village (Bachelors and Maidens: A Turkish Case Study),” in Peristiany, J. G. (ed.), Kinship and Modernization in Mediterranean Society. Hanover, NH. Center for Mediterranean Studies.Google Scholar
KARAL, Enver Ziya (1945) Atatürk'ün Söylev ve Demeçleri [The speeches and statements of Ataturk], 3 Vols, Istanbul.Google Scholar
KAZGAN, Gulten (1981) “Labour Force Participation, Occupational Distribution, Educational Attainment and the Socio-Economic Status of Women in the Turkish Economy,” in Abadan-Unat, N. (ed.), Women in Turkish Society. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
KILI, Suna (1969) Kemalism. Istanbul: School of Business Administration and Economics of Robert College, Mentes Matbaasι.Google Scholar
KINROSS, Lord (1964) Ataturk: The Rebirth of a Nation. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
KIRAY, Mubeccal (1976) “The Family of the Immigrant Worker,” in Abadan-Unat, N. (ed.), Turkish Workers in Europe, 1960–1975. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
LEWIS, Bernard (1966) The Emergence of Modem Turkey. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
LEWIS, Bernard (1960) The Arabs in History, 2nd Ed. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
MANSUR, Fatma (1972) Bodrum: A Town on the Aegean. Leiden: E. J. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MIZZI, Sibil (1981) “Women in Senglea—The Changing Role of Urban Working Class Women in Malta.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Stony Brook.Google Scholar
NETTING, Robert, Richard R., WILK, and Eric J., ARNOULD (1984) “Introduction,” in Netting, R. M., Wilk, R. R., and Arnould, E. J. (eds.), Households: Comparative and Historical Studies of the Domestic Group. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OLSON, Emelie A. (1982) “Duofocal Family Structure and an Alternative Model of Husband-Wife Relationships,” in Kâğιtçιbaşι, C. (ed.), Sex Roles, Family and Community in Turkey. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
PEARL, David (1979) A Textbook on Muslim Law. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
SCHACHT, Joseph (1964) An Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
SCHACHT, Joseph (1955) “The Law,” in von Grunebaum, G. E. (ed.), Unity and Variety in Muslim Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
SOTERIADIS, G. (1918) An Ethnological Map Illustrating Hellenism in the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor. London: Stanford.Google Scholar
STARR, June (1985) “Folk Law in Official Courts in Turkey,” in Allott, A. and Woodman, G. R. (eds.), Peoples Law and State Law: The Bellagio Papers. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
STARR, June (1984) “The Legal and Social Transformation of Rural Women in Aegean Turkey,” in Hirschon, R. (ed.), Women and Property/Women as Property. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
STARR, June (1978) Dispute and Settlement in Rural Turkey: An Ethnography of Law. Leiden: E. J. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
STARR, June, and Jane, COLLIER (1989) “Introduction: Dialogues in Legal Anthropology,” in History and Power in the Study of Law: New Directions in Legal Anthropology, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
STARR, June, and Jonathan, POOL (1974) “The Impact of a Legal Revolution in Rural Turkey,” 8 Law & Society Review 533.Google Scholar
STIRLING, Paul (1965) Turkish Village. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
SZYLIOWICZ, Joseph S. (1966) Political Change in Rural Turkey, Erdemli. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
TEKELI, Sirin (1981) “Women in Turkish Politics,” Abadan-Unat, N. (ed.), Women in Turkish Society. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR (1960) Gazetteer of Turkey: Official Standard Names, Approved by United States Board on Geographic Names, 2 Vols. Washington, DC: Department of the Interior, Office of Geography.Google Scholar
VELIDEDEOĞLU, H. V. (1957) “The Reception of the Swiss Civil Code in Turkey,” 9 International Social Science Bulletin 60.Google Scholar
WILLIAMS, Ivy (1925) The Swiss Civil Code, English Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
YASA, İbrahim (1957) Hasanoğlan: Socio-Economic Structure of a Turkish Village. Ankara: Public Administration Institute.Google Scholar
ZWAHLEN, Mary (1981) Le divorce en Turquie. Contribution à l'étude de la réception du Code Civil Suisse. Geneva: Librairie Droz.Google Scholar

Statutes Cited

Code Civil Turc [du 1926] Loi No. 743, du 17 Février. 1926. Journal Officiel, No. 339, du 4 Avril 1926. John A. Rizzo (ed.) 2nd ed. Constantinople, 1928.Google Scholar
Ottoman Family Law of 1917.Google Scholar