AKP to retract article obliging women to use husband’s surname

ANKARA

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has put on the agenda the removal of the article that obliges women to use only their maiden name in conjunction with their husband's surname.

The step was taken following a meeting between Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş and Aylin Nazlıaka, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party’s (CHP) women's branch, on July 22.

The law proposal on surname regulation, which was brought to parliament by the AKP within the framework of a comprehensive omnibus bill on June 3, has sparked controversy across the country. The controversial article obliges women to take their husband’s surname when married, along with permitting them to use both their maiden name and spouse's surnames only by applying to the marriage officer or civil registry office.

“A woman has the right to avoid switching her ancestry. The right to choose belongs only to women. In our meeting with the minister [Göktaş], I am happy to inform you that this imposition was taken out of the ninth Judicial Package,” Nazlıaka indicated in her remarks to the local media following the meeting.

“We see the matter as more complex than a simple surname decision. In actuality, it is about women having the right to assert their own identities. It is about gender equality and the right to start a family based on such equality,” she further stated.

Nazlıaka concluded her remarks by expressing her gratitude to “all of my sisters who are fighting for this cause in the Turkish women's movement."

Following the meeting upon the topic of debate, the AKP reportedly considers revising or removing the article pertaining to the regulation of women's surnames from the omnibus bill, local media has reported.

"We will prepare a more comprehensive and organized regulation regarding the surname,” sources close to the AKP stated, according to the local media.