터키의 가족법

Abstract

Personal status law which was based on the Kuran and Sunna was applied without changing the character of Islamic law(Shariah) in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Rulers thought that they had no authority to change the Islamic law or demand to change the Islamic personal status law from Islamic lawyer. The Islamic personal status law was prepared by jurisprudence of Islamic lawyer. In 1917, the official personal status law was first prepared by a committee who consisted of Islamic lawyer. Hanafi school of Islamic law gave wives no chance to offer divorce to their husband. But the official personal status law of 1917 had a reformatory factor to give wives a chance to offer divorce. This official personal status law became a model for the some Islamic countries which were established after collapsing of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. Mustafa Kemal who was the founder of the Turkish Republic started a series of reforms after establishing the Turkish Republic. Progressive group under the leadership of Mustafa abolished the Islamic court, retired their judges and transferred their jurisdiction to the secular courts in April 8, 1924. A new secular codes of civil law replaced the Islamic personal status law to promote women's rights in 1926. The new secular codes of civil law had a special feature to abolish polygamy and to give Turkish women chance to offer divorce to their husbands if they needed it. The new secular codes of civil law were changed 15 times from 1926 to 1990 to accomplish equal rights for both sexes. As a result, most lawyer in Turkey including woman lawyers are accepting that the new personal status law which was revised in Dec. 2001 secured the equal rights for both sexes confirming monogamy, equal right for divorce and property of a married couple, representative right of husband and wife respectively for their family etc.