After the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) declared 2025 as the “Year of the Family,” a series of anti-women policies began to take effect. In response to Turkey’s aging population, the government introduced financial incentives under the name of “marriage support,” civil servant positions for women with three children without requiring them to pass the public personnel exam, up to one year of paid maternity leave for women employed in the public sector, and even free internet campaigns. Across many provinces, festivals and events are being held under the banner of the “Year of the Family.” But what role do these policies assign to women? How do they impact their lives? What is the political motivation behind the repeated calls for women to “have three children”? And what provisions in the latest criminal enforcement law affect women? Roza Kahya from 'Women Are Stronger Together' answered ANF’s questions within the scope of the “Year of the Family” policies.

Roza Kahya addressed the points concerning women in the Tenth Judicial Reform Package and stated that although penalties for harassment have been slightly increased, these changes remain largely symbolic and said: “There are issues of release ratios, three-quarters, two-thirds, in the enforcement package. For example, if the sentence for sexual harassment used to range from three months to one year, it has now been extended to six months to one and a half years. But we know how this works: when the perpetrator wears a tie, insults the woman, claims jealousy, or blames the victim, they often receive sentence reductions for so-called ‘good behavior.’ This is how impunity is maintained. Although it may appear that the government is increasing penalties for crimes against women, in reality, there is no meaningful increase at all.

What’s even worse is this, under the new judicial package, when we as women take to the streets against male violence, what was not even considered grounds for detention back in 2011 or 2019 can now lead not only to arrest, but to charges that may even be linked to ‘terrorism.’ A woman protesting the state’s policies on gender today can face one to three years in prison and her case can be categorized as a ‘terror file.’ Meanwhile, when a woman is subjected to violence and the man is taken into custody, he benefits from so-called ‘good behavior’ reductions and may serve only two or three months at most. The AKP continues to pursue its usual policy: the man hits, the state protects. As Women Are Stronger Together, we will continue to stand against this everywhere and fight back in every space we occupy. Legal guarantees and rights were never handed to us. They are the result of our years-long struggle and we know that we will reclaim them.”

Anti-woman policies from the very beginning

The slogan “Have three children,” long associated with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule, has now become official state policy under the 2025 “Year of the Family.” Roza Kahya explained the political path that led to this point: “Since the AKP came to power, even though it occasionally adopted a more democratic tone and opened certain legal spaces, it has never truly committed to transparent or supportive policies for women. It has always operated in a way that placed women’s legal rights under threat. One of the clearest examples was the debate over banning abortion. When the topic surfaced in Turkey, thousands of women took to the streets, and the slogan ‘My body, my decision’ became iconic. One of the first things Erdoğan said when he was prime minister was, ‘Every abortion is a murder.’ Time and again, the government attempted to introduce restrictive, anti-woman policies, but it was forced to step back thanks to the pressure of the women’s and feminist movements. Still, it kept returning to these agendas year after year. They could not ban abortion outright, but in practice, they made it increasingly difficult. We can clearly see that the dominant policy in hospitals today focuses entirely on childbirth rather than reproductive autonomy.

After that, they introduced marriage-focused policies aimed at ‘strengthening the family.’ They brought in the mufti marriage law, stating that official civil marriage would no longer be strictly necessary. At the same time, they worked to legitimize child abuse and sexual violence, introducing so-called legal ‘discounts’ for rapists. If you raped someone and were sentenced, they turned the crime into a bargain: go and marry the victim to reduce or eliminate your sentence. The issue of alimony has also been constantly brought up.

Then, one night, they withdrew from the Istanbul Convention. While doing so, they claimed it was ‘a law against Turkey’s family values.’ Immediately afterward, they began to question Law No. 6284 as well. They claimed, ‘We can introduce better laws than 6284,’ but once they saw that these claims held no credibility in the eyes of women, they hesitated to move forward.”

Roza Kahya noted that the discourse around the “Year of the Family” has been pushed by the government ever since the local and general elections and emphasized that these policies are being used to directly target the women’s and feminist movements. She pointed to the progress made by women’s struggles as the reason behind this targeting. Kahya said, “The ‘Year of the Family’ debate is not new. It has surfaced during every election cycle. The AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had already been promoting this discourse during the general elections, so it came as no surprise to us before the local elections either. During the election process, they began organizing ‘family forums,’ often manipulating academic spaces to justify these efforts. This entire process became one of the clearest indicators that academia is being transformed into a tool that serves the ruling political agenda.

It is clear that AKP’s entire education policy is shaped by its stance on women. For instance, an investigation was launched into the Education and Science Workers’ Union (Eğitim-Sen) simply because it demanded the inclusion of gender studies and gender equality courses. At these forums, one of the main themes emphasized was the decline in marriage rates among women, and even among those who did marry, a significant drop in birth rates. They have now begun to say this openly: because the policies of the feminist movement have become increasingly widespread in society, more and more women are choosing not to marry or have children. The feminist movement has grown and strengthened significantly over the years. Its voice is no longer confined to the streets, it now reaches into homes, into the lives of women subjected to male violence. This has led to higher rates of divorce, decreased childbirth, and, more importantly, shown us the reality of women defending their lives just to survive.

In this sense, we clearly see that the women’s and feminist movements have become a force in political life, both in Turkey and in Kurdistan. The government has seen this too, and that is precisely why it has launched a campaign to demonize the movement. The government now systematically places the women’s movement on its political agenda. This political climate has also opened the door for violence to become more widespread and socially normalized, including homophobic and transphobic hate crimes.”

Economic hardship is a major reason behind falling birth rates

Roza Kahya pointed out that the financial incentives introduced under the “Year of the Family” not only promote marriage and childbirth but also place people in debt to the state. She emphasized that the decline in birth rates is primarily rooted in economic conditions: “After the Year of the Family was declared, the first region where the policies were implemented was the earthquake zone. The government announced that earthquake survivors would be granted housing funds if they got married and had children. In reality, this creates a system of debt. On the one hand, they are promoting marriage and childbirth, while on the other, they are producing policies that push people deeper into financial dependency. Under the youth fund, university students were told, ‘If you get married, your student loan debt will be forgiven. If you have children, you will receive financial support.’ Most recently, Erdoğan said, ‘I declare the next ten years as the Decade of the Family,’ and he openly repeated the phrase, ‘Abortion is murder.’ Five years ago, even with lower income levels, people were still having children. So why not now? They try to argue that it has nothing to do with the economy but in fact, it has everything to do with the economy.

We are in the middle of a global crisis, and in Turkey we all experience its effects in different ways. But women are facing a deepening crisis of poverty. And within this poverty, they are also subjected to violence, because there are no employment opportunities. When we look at what the government calls ‘women’s employment’ every year, we see that it’s a lie. The jobs offered to women are piecework, insecure, and without insurance. Another reason women are being pushed so aggressively toward childbirth is also economic. It is about controlling women’s bodies and producing labor. Birth is one of the areas where patriarchy and capitalism both lay claim to the female body. The more children, the more future workers. But do we even need more workers in Turkey right now? There are thousands of unemployed people. The poor already cannot survive. And since the pandemic, the elderly have been treated like they should simply ‘disappear.’ There are no social policies for retirees or the aging population. All of this creates a system where younger, more ‘dynamic’ people are forced to work under increasingly precarious conditions.

In the case of the Year of the Family, what they clearly see is the growing influence of the feminist and women’s movements. They see women marching in the streets during the Feminist Night Walks. They see women rising up whenever a femicide takes place. The state and the government are fully aware of this. That is why they are attacking this struggle so fiercely. But despite everything, we will continue our resistance.”