Türkiye

While Erdogan has agreed to meet today with the protest leaders, many

The local elections in March 2014 will have a vital bearing on the future of Turkish politics. The presence of women in the parliament, although still totally inadequate, went up to 14.5 % in the last elections. However, the status of women in local administrations is truly dismal.

Leyla Zana: Married at 14 to Mehdi Zana, a political Kurd some 20 years her senior who became mayor of Diyarbakir and spent 16 years in jail after the 1980 military coup, she found herself the single mother of two children.

Women activists in Turkey launched a new campaign aimed at increasing the number of women elected to parliament. The campaign depicts the patriarchal society in Turkey by featuring well-known women wearing false moustaches.

In Turkey women are becoming more enthusiastic over becoming parliamentary candidates, and almost all the political parties are trying to do something toward positive discrimination for women.

Turkish women are on the street protesting as never before as the fight to preserve Turkey's secular status gives them a louder political voice that could translate into parliamentary seats in this summer's elections.

Several of Turkey's NGO's gathered to discuss strategies for penetrating ‘the old boys network' of Turkey's parliament yesterday, just a month before Turkey's general elections.

Informal economy negatively affects the participation of women in labor force. 66 percent of women work unregistered, stated Nimet Çubukçu, State Minister for Women and Family Affairs yesterday in Istanbul