Women's suffrage was introduced in Turkey in 1934, a decade before it arrived in France. Successive constitutions have reaffirmed gender equality and in 2004 the constitution was amended to specify that its maintenance was the state's responsibility. Yet Turkish women might be about to head for the barricades.

The government's big idea for 2008 is a new constitution and, according to a very early leaked draft, Article 9 will state that women, along with the elderly, children and the handicapped, constitute a group "in need of special protection". The idea that the six-member committee drafting the constitution - which includes one woman - would even consider such a proposal has outraged women's groups.