Roughly 99 percent of Turks are Muslim. Religious freedom is restricted by limits on worship to designated sites, constraints on building houses of worship for minority religions, and the recent military-backed government crackdown on what it perceives as Islamic fundamentalism. After a 1997 law drastically reduced attendance in Islamic high schools, an administrative court in February raised the age of eligibility to attend religious schools from 12 to 15 and banned weekend and summer Koran courses. Also in February, the ministry of education renewed a longstanding but unenforced ban on traditional headscarves in schools, government offices, and state-run facilities. Hundreds of civil servants, teachers, governors, and mayors have been investigated for allegedly supporting fundamentalism, and suspected militants have been rounded up in raids on clubs and associations.
Women face discrimination in family matters such as inheritance and marital rights and obligations.
Laws and social norms make it difficult to prosecute rape cases, and the penalty for rape may be reduced if a woman was not a virgin prior to her attack. A law passed in January prohibits spousal abuse. Workers, except members of security forces, may join independent trade unions. The right to strike is restricted to exclude workers engaged in the protection of life and property and those in the mining and petroleum industries, sanitation services, national defense, and education. Public sector employees demonstrated for several days in March over a draft law which does not allow for middle-ranking public workers to strike and bargain collectively.