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On 22 November 2001, the Turkish Parliament passed a new civil code that changed women's legal status in the family, establishing full equality between spouses. The New Legal Status of Women in Turkey , a booklet published by Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR), a women's non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Istanbul, provides a comprehensive overview of the new legal status of women in Turkey.
This booklet focuses mainly on the gains of the new civil code, which came into effect on 1 January 2002, replacing the Civil Code of 1926. While the former code, which was based on the Swiss civil code, granted women considerable rights (by outlawing polygamy and gender inequality regarding divorce, custody of children, and inheritance), it included several discriminatory articles that relegated women to a subordinate status and reinforced unequal power relations between men and women in the family. The former civil code, for instance, stated that the "husband is the head of the family," thus giving him the final say over the choice of the place of residence and over matters related to children. The husband also represented the marriage union in legal matters. The new civil code removed these and similar discriminatory clauses that disempowered women in relation to their husbands. It has established equality between spouses, thus granting women equal say in decisions regarding the marriage union and...