TURKISH WOMEN

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11783, 20 March 1924, Page 8

TURKISH WOMEN

ENTITLED TO VOTE WHEN 18 NEW CONSTITUTION GRANTS MANY PRIVILEGES. INTERESTING DEBATE. ; By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Published in “Tho Times.” LONDON," March 18. The Constantinople correspondent ol “The Times” says: “Turkish girls of eighteen are now eligible to vote .in Parliamentary elections. The rights are given them under the new Constitutional Charter, the first seventeen clauses of which have been passed by the National Assembly. “One of the most interesting '"eafcures of the debate was the indication it gave of the growth of the feminist movement in Turkey. Article Ten proposed that every Turk, on reaching the age of eighteen, should be entitled to vote. It was acknowledged that this applied to wqmen as well as men. Article Eleven proposed that every Turk, on reaching the age of thirty, should be eligible for election as a deputy. Champions of rights naturally claimed that \they were also included. The doubt was finally removed by the insertion of the word “male.” Nevertheless,* theio were many deputies ready to admit women to the same privileges as men, declaring that the resistance to their admission was foolish. In a decade, women will certainly he members, of the Assembly,”