75 pct of judges are men, data reveals

Women are vastly underrepresented in Turkey’s judiciary branches as roughly 75 percent of the country’s judges and prosecutors are men, according to figures obtained from the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK).

“Suspects used to stare directly at my face and call me ‘Mr. Judge.’ When I warned them, they would say ‘Ms. Judge,’ but after a while they would still continue to call me ‘Mr. Judge,’” said retired chief justice Neylan Feke, adding that until a certain period, only 5 percent of judges recruited were women.

Females make up 24.3 percent of a total of the 7,600 judges in Turkey, 24.3 percent are female, but only 8.3 percent of the more than 4,400 prosecutors in the country are female, according to reports.

A female ratio of 24.3 percent was not particularly bad for a country like Turkey and when compared to other professions, said Aydeniz Alisbah Tuskan, a member of the Istanbul Bar Association’s management board.

“But are there women in the decision-making bodies? How many women are there in the HSYK? For instance, chief judges ought to be women; female department heads ought to be [employed] in the Supreme Court of Appeals. Women are rarely seen in decision-making bodies,” she said.

The ratio of women in bar associations, however, stood as high as 40 percent, Tuskan said.

“This is a reflection of the male-dominant mindset,” she said, referring to the recent court ruling in the southeastern province of Mardin that sentenced 26 suspects to the minimum sentence for raping a 13-year-old girl on the grounds that the minor had consented to have sex with them.