JINHA

ANKARA – The Association to Support Women Political Candidates (KA.DER) released its eighth annual report card on gender parity in representation in Turkey ahead of International Women's Day on March 8. "Turkey failed again," said the association.The only party achieving 100% equal representation was the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), while women's representation percentages in all other major parties (the AKP, CHP and MHP) remained in the single digits.

In the report, called "Male-Female Equality in Representation," there has been no change over the last eight years, with women taking very little space in major decision-making bodies, including the parliament, local administration, bureaucracy and municipal government.

In Turkey, women are 77 out of 535 MPs. There is only one women out of 26 ministers. Out of 81 governors, there are two women. Only three metropolitan municipal mayors in the countries 30 big cities are women. There are only a handful of women among the countries undersecretaries, top judicial officials and university rectors.

While the HDP follows a co-chair system in which all positions are shared by one man and one woman, the AKP had no women among their provincial chairs in Turkey's 81 provinces. The CHP had just five and the MHP had one.

The report called for political parties to follow the HDP's example in running equal amounts of male and female candidates in the political elections upcoming on June 7. Even when women are elected, they face extreme discrimination from men in politics.

(fk/cm)