source: http://womenofhistory.blogspot.com/2010/03/turkey-sperm-bank-users-face-jail.html
source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8568733.stmTurkey bans trips abroad for artificial insemination
By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Istanbul
Turkish citizens cannot conceal the paternity of their children
A new law passed in Turkey has made it a criminal offence for a woman to go abroad and get pregnant via artificial insemination.
Artificial insemination is already illegal, but women have until now been able to go overseas to seek sperm donors.
Now they will face punishment of one to three years in prison for doing so.
Doctors and lawyers say they are trying to find out how the government plans to enforce the law.
All sorts of activities can land you in court, and possibly in jail, in Turkey.
Insulting "Turkishness", taking part in demonstrations, or showing the slightest sympathy for the banned Kurdish Workers' Party, for example.
Now you can add to that long list the crime of using a foreign sperm donor.
Paternity concerns
Artificial insemination is already illegal in Turkey. Doctors offering fertility treatment here have to make that clear in their advertising.
But women have until now been able to seek sperm donors overseas without fear of prosecution.
We spent years fighting to improve the law so that it would properly protect women's autonomy over their bodies and sexuality
Pinar Ilkkaracan
Women's rights campaigner
However, a new regulation, quietly published nine days ago by the Turkish Health Ministry, states that any clinics, doctors or patients who use, or encourage the use of, overseas sperm banks will be reported to state prosecutors and face possible criminal charges.
Clinics will be closed down, for three months at first and then permanently if the offence is repeated.
A spokesman at the Department of Health, Irfan Sencan, said the regulation was covered by article 231 of the criminal code, which makes it a crime to conceal the paternity of a child.
But Pinar Ilkkaracan, a prominent women's rights campaigner in Turkey, said it would be a misinterpretation of a law intended to protect the inheritance rights of children.
"This is completely against the philosophy of the reformed penal code," she told the BBC.
"We spent years fighting to improve the law so that it would properly protect women's autonomy over their bodies and sexuality.
"This government has slipped this regulation in without any debate in parliament."
Conservative outlook
"It is a huge step backwards," said Ismail Mete Itil, chairman of the Turkish Gynaecologists' and Obstetricians' Association.
"The law should be reformed to take into account the new choices technology offers women - they have done the opposite. They have not thought through the implications of this."
Dr Itil said the number of women seeking sperm donors overseas was small, fewer than 100 a year, but he worries about the implications of the new regulation in other areas, like ethnically-mixed couples.
The issue was publicly discussed last year when one of Turkey's best-known actresses, Guner Ozkul, announced she had used a sperm donor in Denmark to conceive her daughter, who is now five months old.
Ms Ozkul told the BBC she did not want to comment on the new regulation.
It is hard to imagine pregnant women being put on trial just for the way they conceived, but not impossible in Turkey, where last month a 15-year-old Kurdish girl was jailed for nearly eight years just for taking part in a demonstration.
Ms Ilkkaracan believes the move reflects the conservative outlook of the governing Justice and Development Party, which has strongly promoted family values.
She cites the party's failed attempt to criminalise adultery in 2004, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's public call for women to have at least three children as examples.
But Mr Sencan at the Department of Health said it was essential for children to know who their fathers and grandfathers are; using sperm donors, he said, contravened that requirement.
Women on the Front Line - Turkey: Killing in the Name of Honour Part of the series: Women on the Front Line
More to view/download/share: links
This programme contains sensitive content, teachers are advised to watch in full before showing to pupils
An investigation into why women in Turkey, are being forced into suicide in an attempt to cover up "honour" killings.
According to UNFPA, as many as 5,000 women a year are murdered in the name of honour.
In Turkey, "honour" killings now carry a mandatory life sentence but there is disturbing evidence that tougher sentencing is leading to an increase in forced suicides.
Introduced by Annie Lennox and shot by all-women crews, this series tells the personal stories of the courageous women who have survived abuses and now want their voices to be heard.
Kurdish human rights activist condemned in Turkey
The MP from banned in 1994 pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party Leyla Zana is sentenced to 3-years? imprisonment on a charge of ?propaganda about terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers? Party.?
Zana and her lawyer did not attend the closing court session of Diyarbakir 5th High Criminal Court, when the verdict was read out.
Earlier, in April 2008 she was sentenced to 2-years imprisonment by Turkish authorities for allegedly ?spreading terrorist propaganda? by saying ?Kurds have three leaders namely Massoud Barzani, Celal Talebani and Abdullah Ocalan.?
Thereafter, in December 2008, Zana was sentenced to 10 more years by the Turkish court, saying she violated Turkish Penal code and Turkish anti-terror law in 9 different speeches.
Women condemn Turkey constitution
By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul
The Islamic headscarf is worn by 60% of Turkish women
Women's groups in Turkey have condemned a new draft constitution, saying it sets the country back years in terms of gender equality.
A new civilian constitution is being prepared to replace the current one, introduced after a 1980 military coup.
The document describes women as a vulnerable group needing protection.
The proposed constitution has already sparked fierce debate with a clause to allow women to attend university wearing the Islamic headscarf.
Speaking on Tuesday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured critics the new draft constitution will reflect the values and needs of all groups of society.
'Patriarchal society'
More than 80 women's groups have come together to voice strong opposition to the draft constitution, calling it a major step backwards for equal rights.
The current constitution in Turkey obliges the government to ensure equality for all - a clause that women's groups fought hard to include.
The new draft removes that, describing women instead as a vulnerable group in need of special protection.
Women's rights activist Selen Lermioglu calls that worrying proof that Turkey is still a highly patriarchal society.
"If the government accepts this it will show their ideology and mindset about women and men - that women are a group that needs to be protected," she said.
PM Erdogan wants to replace the 1980 constitution
"No we're not, we don't need protection. We need equality and ask for that, not protection.
"If all laws and the whole constitution is prepared with this mindset, it can have a really bad impact," she added, pointing out that the draft was drawn up by men.
Pressure from women's groups helped force major reforms of Turkey's civil code in 2002.
A clause was removed then that identified the man as the head of the household, and obliged a wife to seek permission to go out to work.
Women's rights activists see this draft constitution as a return to that mentality.
They warn it could allow a man to deny his wife the right to work, for example, on the premise he is protecting her.
And they fear such an argument could well win favour with Turkey's conservative, male-dominated judiciary.
The group says it has not formed a common position yet on the issue of the Islamic headscarf, worn by more than 60% of Turkish woman but banned in state offices, schools and universities.
The government wants to change the constitution to ensure girls who cover their heads can attend university.
Women's activists, like the wider society here, are divided on that.
So far the new constitution has been drafted behind closed doors: now women's groups are demanding to be consulted.
They want to make this process an opportunity to push for more rights, not fewer, including a clause insisting on a temporary quota for women, to eliminate discrimination in all areas.
They argue that is the only way to lift Turkey from close to the bottom of the list in Europe on gender equality.
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