religion, politics and gender equality in Turkey

[Umit]

Turkey has recently undergone a variety of changes in its politics due to the government. This changes take their origin from the religious views of the new government. I will talk about the role of religion in terms of its effects on politics and gender equality in Turkey. My essential source for this essay is an article of prof. Yeşim Arat, which is '' religion, politics and gender equality in Turkey: Implications of academic paradox?''.
Prof. Arat basically says in this article that the expansion of religious freedoms gives rise to the potential threats to gender equality. She actually tries to make clear the relationship between liberalization process and its effects on women's participation in social,political and educational activities. Prof. Arat claims that as the state give more rights to religious people to practice their lifestyle, women are increasingly forced to behave according to the religious orders which give them secondary roles in society.
In addition, As for the implications in politics, AKP, Justice and Development Party, does not act against woman rights deliberately but its patriarchal structure forced it to do so. The doctrine of islam followed strictly by most of the party's members demands from women to stay at home and be interested in houseworks and childcare. The liberalization of such ideas eventually results in more restrictive environment for women to interact. Also,prof. Arat says, we can easily see the fact that AKP attempts to employ its own partisans in public offices. Such a politics have always taken part in the history of Turkey but the distinction between the old and AKP practices is that the employed people by AKP mainly consist of religious people supporting the traditional roles of women.
The evidences for the paradox according to prof. Arat are as follows:
First, the employment rate of women has decreased significantly in the last decade. Second, the regulations for the ages for retirement is not an attractive mechanism in order to maintain the participation of women in business life because it discourages women to earn money from a permanent job. Third, the rights of women to benefit from the medical insurance of their father are also abolished, which leads them to get married to men who have medical insurance. Finally, the religion course in secondary schools advise the use of headscarves for girls. Moreover, The teachers of philosophy courses in high schools frequently propagate the creed of Islam while their mission is to teach critical thinking to students.
To sum up, Turkey's secular structure is being damaged because of the expanded power of the patriarchal religious views and the most adversely affected social group in society is women as always.

TOEFL listening lectures: Why does the professor mention the large jars?

[Kitosdad]

[Umit]

thank you for corrections kitos.