THE NECESSARY LINKAGE BETWEEN JUSTICE AND EQUALITY: TURKEY

Abstract

I presented this paper at the International Women and Justice Summit organised by the KADEM (Kadin ve Domokrasi Derneği), an NGO, and the Ministry of the Family and Social Policy in Istanbul, November 24-25, 2014. The paper was assigned to Session Two on Social Justice for Women: Different Dimensions of Oppression: Gender! Justice? Or Equality? At the conference in which the President of Turkey Recep Erdoğan in his opening speech spoke against the idea of equality as alien, laying claim to justice without equality. At the Summit opening President Recep Erdoğan gave a speech setting the tone for advocating justice over equality. A small selection of his statements illustrates his position. “You cannot place women and men into equal positions. Their creation, nature and very constitution are different.” “What women need is not equality, but rather equity, in other words, justice.” “Our religion, Islam, puts women in a special position. What is this special position? Motherhood. Motherhood is unique to women. It is something that cannot be attained by men. It is the highest level.” The paper makes an Islamic argument for gender equality grounded in the Qur’anic affirmation that all human beings (insan) are created equal observing that this is reflected as well in universal instruments. The paper points out that equality is not to be confused with sameness or uniformity. References to biological difference are found in the Qur’an but it does not ordain different social roles for women and men. This paper examines the idea and practice of multiple social roles that may be freely chosen. It insists that there can be no justice without human equality.