Today in History – 5/6 December

Women’s rights to vote are expanded

On December 5, 1934, Prime Minister İsmet İnönü and 191 deputies submitted a proposal to the Grand National Assembly to make an amendment to the Election Law in the Constitution. The proposal in question foresaw granting Turkish women the right to vote at the age of 22 and to be elected for the parliament at the age of 30.

When 258 members out of the 317-member Assembly participating in the vote unanimously accepted the proposal, Turkey granted women the right to vote for and be elected as deputies years before many Western countries.

Highly pleased with this progress, Atatürk made the following remarks:

This decision has granted social and political rights to Turkish women far before other nations. The Turkish woman dressed in a chador and hidden behind a veil or a lattice window is now history… Having experienced participation in political life through municipal elections, the Turkish women are now granted the highest right to partake in parliamentary elections and be elected as deputies. Spared from women in many civilized countries, this right is now in the hands of Turkish women, who will exercise it with great competence.

Once the law was enacted, Turkish women voted for the first time in the general elections of February 8, 1935 and succeeded in electing 18 female deputies for the Grand National Assembly.