ISTANBUL, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey's government wants
to make adultery a crime, the justice minister was
quoted as saying Monday, a proposal that has outraged
the main opposition and women's groups.
Although the legislation would also apply to men, a
previous adultery law abolished six years ago was used
mainly against women.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which
traces its roots to a banned Islamist movement, wants
to include the adultery ban in an overhaul of the
penal code, promised as part of reforms aimed at
meeting European Union (news - web sites) criteria.
The main opposition party has threatened to vote
against the entire penal code reform if the clause on
adultery is included in the bill and brought to
parliament.
"We believe that adultery should be a crime, because
society also expects this," Justice Minister Cemil
Cicek was quoted as saying by newspapers.
Turkey's top court struck down a law penalizing
adultery in 1998 and said in its ruling that the law
had been mainly used against women, leading to gender
inequality.
Although Muslim Turkey has enshrined equality for
women, rights groups say discrimination against women
remains endemic.
The European Union is expected to criticize the lack
of equality for women in Turkey in a progress report
on the country's candidacy due in October, diplomats
have said.
The penal code's other reforms aim primarily to expand
rights to meet the European Union's basic criteria for
membership. Turkey is hoping a swath of recent rights
reforms will convince Brussels to set a date to begin
accession talks next year.
The other proposed changes include ending reductions
in sentences for those convicted of so-called honor
killings, longer prison terms for police found guilty
of torture and new penalties for those convicted of
racism and other forms of discrimination.
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The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there.~ Betty Grable
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