Van — In 2025, the Twelfth Family Court in Van, northern Kurdistan, submitted a request to the Turkish Constitutional Court to challenge the phrase "indefinitely" in Article 175 of Turkish Civil Code No. 4721, which regulates post-divorce alimony.

The objection stated that the current wording of the article—which stipulates that "the party who will fall into poverty due to divorce, provided that their degree of fault is not greater, may request alimony from the other party proportionate to their financial capacity indefinitely"—requires revision. The request specifically sought the annulment of the phrase "indefinitely."

After reviewing the request, the Constitutional Court issued a decision on June 4, 2026, by majority vote, annulling the phrase "indefinitely" from Article 175, considering that indefinite alimony requires legislative reassessment. The court also ruled that the annulment would take effect nine months after the publication of the reasoned decision in the Official Gazette.

From a legal perspective, alimony is not a gender-based system. According to Turkish civil law, alimony is granted to the party who would fall into poverty after divorce, provided their degree of fault is not greater than the other party's. Although the right to alimony does not exclusively belong to women, in Turkey, due to social and economic inequality between genders, the majority of alimony recipients are women.

"The Burden of Care Falls on Women's Shoulders"

Lawyer Burcu Şebir, a member of the Human Rights and Media Association (İHAMED), commented on the right to alimony, noting that many debates have begun following the Constitutional Court's decision and are still ongoing. "There is a group that claims women enrich themselves through alimony, so it is necessary to clarify the purpose of alimony. The purpose of alimony is not enrichment. Within the family unit, some individuals are kept out of the labor market due to childcare, housework, and in some cases, elderly care. There are women who dedicate years of their lives to unpaid care work. From this perspective, post-divorce alimony is a limited form of legal security for women, because women may also face psychological pressure and physical violence within the institution of marriage."

Can Women Live Under Equal Conditions to Men?

Lawyer Burcu Şebir pointed out that those advocating for restricting or completely abolishing alimony must answer questions such as: "Do women live under equal conditions? Do they receive equal pay? Can they easily find work after divorce? What is the employment rate of women?" She affirmed that there are inequalities that women suffer from.

She believes that attempting to apply global models to Turkey's conditions without answering these questions is, in fact, a form of irrationality. "At the beginning of the debate, European countries are cited as examples. It is true that alimony restrictions exist in Europe and elsewhere, but there, women are not pushed into poverty after divorce because social safeguards exist. State mechanisms are also more developed and provide higher opportunities for women's employment. In Turkey, we see the complete opposite. Since women are not empowered and are left in great poverty after divorce, directly transferring and applying this model is not a legal matter, nor can it be, and it is also inhumane."

"In Turkey, Many Women Are Not Economically Independent"

The lawyer affirmed that the discourse of the "sacred family" does not protect women in Turkey, noting that women do not live under equal conditions, and that directly adopting European models is not possible because it would mean ignoring the institutional structure that made those outcomes possible. "Those institutional foundations must first be built before the model can be applied. Otherwise, the opposite cannot be accepted."

She explained that women in Turkey face great difficulties after divorce, including limited access to childcare facilities and employment opportunities. "Under these conditions, restricting or abolishing alimony will keep women within the cycle of violence."

She pointed out that European countries provide mechanisms to ensure alimony collection, whereas in Turkey these guarantees do not exist, and alimony is often not collected at all.

She also stated that many women are forced into early marriage, perform unpaid care work, are subjected to violence, and after divorce are left without real support, making their integration into working life extremely difficult. "Talk of women becoming rich through alimony is unrealistic."

She clarified that the law does not target women only but any party who falls into poverty after divorce. However, the reality in Turkey makes women the majority of those affected. Claims that men pay alimony for life are incorrect, as alimony ceases if the recipient's living conditions improve.

"Women Will Be Pushed Toward Insecurity"

She affirmed that any restriction or abolition of alimony without building supportive institutions—such as equal pay, employment opportunities, and childcare facilities—will push women toward poverty and insecurity.

Burcu Şebir also drew attention to the rising rates of femicide and suspicious deaths, considering this evidence that women face significant risks. She compared this to the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, which she said had provided important protection for women, affirming that any regression in women's rights deepens the cycle of violence, and that the absence of effective state mechanisms makes talk of women's rights mere propaganda.