Turkish Constitutional Court has Published Its Decision on Women’s Surname

The Turkish Constitutional Court's decision dated 22.02.2023 and numbered 2022/155 E. 2023/38 K. ("Decision") has been published in the Official Gazette dated 28 April 2023 and numbered 32174.

The Istanbul 8th Family Court applied to the Constitutional Court for the annulment of Article 187 of the Turkish Civil Code No. 4721 ("TCC") titled "Surname of the woman" stipulates that "Upon marriage, the woman shall take the surname of her husband; however, she may use her previous surname in front of her husband's surname upon her written application to the marriage registrar or later to the civil registry office. A woman who has previously used two surnames can benefit from this right only for one surname." 

According to the Decision;

• It is stated that the article in question stipulates that women can use their maiden name, only in front of their husband's surname after marriage, whereas men can continue to use their surname after marriage. Which leads to differential treatment on the basis of gender between spouses who are in a comparably similar situations.
• It is emphasized that the basis for the realization of the principle of equality between spouses is that women can benefit from equal rights with men without recourse to a judicial remedy.
• It is stated that it is not possible to accept the purpose of ensuring the order of civil registry records as a reasonable cause for the difference in treatment stipulated in the provision of the article in question.
• It was concluded that the difference in treatment between men and women in the context of using the surname before marriage and alone after marriage violates the principle of equality since it is not based on an objective and reasonable basis.
• In this context, the first sentence of Article 187 of the Civil Code was annulled as unconstitutional.

The decision will enter into force 9 months after its publication.

The full text of the aforementioned Decision is available here.

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Zumbul Attorneys at Law

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