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Atatürk and Women's Rights
"Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women."
With abiding faith in the vital importance of women in society, Atatürk
launched many reforms to give Turkish women equal rights and
opportunities.
The new Civil Code, adopted in 1926, abolished polygamy and
recognized the equal rights of women in divorce, custody, and inheritance. The
entire educational system from the grade school to the university became
coeducational. Atatürk greatly admired the support that the national
liberation struggle received from women and praised their many contributions:
" In Turkish society, women have not lagged behind men in science,
scholarship, and culture. Perhaps they have even gone further ahead."
He gave women the same opportunities as men, including full political
rights. In the mid-1930s, 18 women, among them a villager, were elected to the
national parliament. Later, Turkey had the world's first women supreme court
justice.
In all walks of life, Atatürk's Turkey has produced tens of thousands of
well-educated women who participate in national life as doctors, lawyers,
engineers, teachers, writers, administrators, executives, and creative
artists.
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