Turkey’s Constitutional Court has rejected a challenge on grounds of equality to a provision putting married women in their husbands’ family registries, a rule long criticized as gender discrimination, the Yeni Özgür Politika news website reported.
The case was referred to the Constitutional Court by the İstanbul 14th Civil Court of First Instance, which sought the annulment of Article 23 of Turkey’s Population Services Law, arguing that it discriminated against women by treating married women and men differently despite their comparable legal status.
Under the provision, a woman’s registration is transferred to her husband’s family registry upon marriage. If he dies, she remains registered there unless she remarries, although she may request to return to her father’s family registry.
The İstanbul court also said there was no legitimate justification for making the husband’s family registry the basis for recording a married couple.
The Constitutional Court rejected the request for annulment by a majority vote, describing the practice as a technical form of administrative record-keeping. It found that transferring a woman’s registration upon marriage had no direct and decisive impact on her legal status or any concrete interest.
Five members of the Constitutional Court dissented. Four said in a joint dissent that the practice was incompatible with the principles of equality and human dignity, arguing that it treated women as dependent on their husbands rather than as independent individuals.
In a 2023 ruling the Constitutional Court struck down a provision of the Turkish Civil Code requiring married women to take their husbands’ surnames, finding that treating married women and men differently with respect to their surnames violated the constitutional principle of equality. The court said there was no objective and reasonable justification for the differential treatment and that allowing women to retain their surnames alone would not undermine the public interest.
The government subsequently sought to reinstate the requirement through legislation included in a judicial reform package, but the provision was later dropped from the bill.
Women’s rights groups in Turkey continue to raise concerns about persistent gender inequalities, with violence against women and femicide among the most pressing issues. Such criticism intensified after Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, formally known as the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.
Despite opposition from the international community and women’s rights groups, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan withdrew Turkey from the convention by presidential decree in March 2021.
International organizations, rights groups and local women’s associations have continued to call on Turkey to rejoin the convention since the withdrawal.
