ANKARA - Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said on Saturday human rights and the secular nature of a state are not threatened by the headscarf.
Taking the floor in "the 4th International Women`s Convention in Local Administrations" in Ankara, Bakoyannis said, "I strongly believe that in the so-called Western world we have more stereotypes than we care to admit. There is a general misconception, based on false readings of the Koran, that Islam treats women as inferior to men. Yet, a roguish reading of the Old or New Testament ignoring the historical context in which they were written could easily support a similar conclusion about Christianity. Much depends on how we interpret these texts and what we choose to emphasize in them. Let us not forget that both Islam and Christianity are based on the precept that rights and obligations to our fellow human beings and to God are the same for everyone. No exceptions."
"Successful women from many Muslim countries with whom I have met and conversed in various fora, reiterate that for them, religion really means peace and equality. A great number of women throughout the Muslim world, and particularly in Turkey, are proof that a woman in a modern world can maintain her cultural identity with her gender, language and religion intact, and at the same time go far and succeed," she stated.
Bakoyannis said, "these women succeeded because they had the opportunity to reach their fullest potential thanks to freedom of choice. They were able to study, travel, compete for jobs and move up the business ladder based on their own merit. But for equality - written in law - to take true effect, there must also be implementation of the law. Once this is achieved, women will be armed with the confidence they need to make their dreams true on equal footing."
"Human rights and the secular nature of a state are not threatened by the headscarf. Nor are they safeguarded by a ban. Rights and open societies are guaranteed by political will, legal frameworks, policies on education and access to information and new technologies; policies on development, employment, entrepreneurship, equal social and political participation," she said.
"Progress materialized through long, painful struggles. Made possible by the mobilization of women themselves - women like the ones I see gathered here today. We`ve undeniably come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. And this is true both in the developed and developing world. As we speak, rape is used as a weapon in armed conflict in international wars and in domestic wars in modern-day cities. Millions of women across the globe live in conditions of abject deprivation," she said.
"In the year 2008, biased employment laws or discriminatory enforcement of these laws victimize women. Governments perpetuate biases that renders women unequal. Women are segregated in their daily lives, excluded from the workforce because they happen to bear children; excluded from political participation and public life," Bakoyannis said.
"On the shifting sands of today`s world, our commitment is tested on a daily basis. We must drive forward with renewed energy and design effective far-reaching policies to secure equal rights for all."
"According to World Bank figures, women today live longer and better lives than their mothers and grandmothers did. But unless they can achieve their full economic potential, societies will continue to pay a heavy price. Why? Because females still lag behind economically. Women still trail men in the workplace, at the bank and on the farm. As a result, our societies fail to utilize 100% of their human resources," Bakoyannis said.
"For its part, Greece has launched the Next Generation Initiative that aims at women`s economic empowerment and promotes local business for global rights. In the Regional Forum that will be convened in Athens on the 2nd and 3rd of June we hope to launch an action-oriented discussion on ways to invest in the vast human resources of girls and women in the Middle East and North Africa by empowering them, educating them, and enabling them to harvest the advantages of the Information and communication technologies," she said.
"Take Turkey as an example. The clear leadership and bold vision exhibited by the AKP (Justice & Development Party), and personally by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with the improvement in Turkey-EU relations had a deep impact on women`s rights," she said.
"AKP and Prime Minister Erdogan`s political philosophy on improving women`s standing in modern Turkey have a strong historical footing; they make a sound historical case. We need only to draw the parallels with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk`s (the founder of Turkish Republic) primary concern to put women at the pedestal of his political and economic reforms. Gender equality was established as a founding principle of the Turkish Republic by Kemal Ataturk himself. Indeed, women in Turkey first cast their vote in 1934, long before women in some Western European countries. During Ataturk`s tenure, women became the grist to the mill of the revitalization of Turkish agriculture. Their social success at the time brought to the fore an unconquerable truth: women can be the locomotive of social and economic change. Seen in this light, the progress made under this government with the latest reforms to the civil and criminal code, amongst others, was only natural. I am confident that the necessary steps will be made and a new social reality will be created," Bakoyannis said.
"As most of you know, Greece strongly supports Turkey`s bid to join the EU. We made the strategic choice to champion your country`s European integration. Our neighbor`s EU membership will for Greece be a moment of great satisfaction. It will mean that years of negotiations and of laborious efforts have borne fruit and that all EU commitments and obligations will have been fulfilled. We feel that Turkey`s European perspective will form a common and secure base for cooperation between our countries. We believe that Turkey`s EU accession will contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in our broader region," she added.
(EÖ)