Turkey ‘safer’ but strict

Press, 6 September 1983, Page 6

Turkey ‘safer’ but strict

Mrs Mary Holmes said she felt much safer at night in Turkey, during a twoweek visit, than she did at home in Christchurch. Mrs Holmes was in Istanbul recently for a convention of Soroptimists, an international women’s service organisation. She is president of the Christchurch club. Mrs Holmes, who is a Justice of the Peace, felt that ;the laws in Turkey must be much stricter than in New Zealand because of the lack of crime in Istanbul The country is under martial law. tent,” she said.

Mrs Holmes said she found martial law stifling. “There isn’t the freedom we have in New Zealand, freedom of the press, freedom to speak even.” She has experienced martial law before, in Indonesia, where she lived for 20 years. Turkey’s strong Muslim tradition, with its emphasis on the family, was another reason for the lack of crime, she believed. Men were the heads of the families as well as the bread-winners. Women played the part of wife and mother, in the house. • “The women don’t seem »to mind the fact that they Wbave to be a bit subservient. I think the average Sorop-

timist would find it all a bit stifling,She said. Mrs Wines said that she

saw very few women travelling on the suburban transport systems, because the women were not going out to work.

Instead, Turkish men did the work traditionally done by women in New Zealand, such as hotel laundering and cleaning, and restaurant waiting. “There are no unemployment benefits so every man tries to do something, even if it is only cleaning shoes or selling combs,” she said. A guide told her that the average wage was SUSS a

day. Soroptimists at the conference adopted a United Nations policy of elimination of discrimination against women.

The New Zealand Government had already signed the pledge but had not ratified it, said Mrs Holmes.

“We’ll have to pressure the Government to do that,” she said. Other decisions made at the convention were:

• To supply safe drinking, water to communities in Africa’s Senegal and to the Philippines. • Support for the Amnesty International international appeal for an amnesty for all prisoners of conscience.

• to urge governments who import or export nuclear materials to sign treaties which lay down safeguards on the use of nuclear material.