Istanbul to host women's conference

Some 500 women will come to Istanbul this week for the 31st Conference of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW), a leading girls' and women's global organization advocating for women's rights, equality and empowerment.  Nezihe Bilhan, head of the local organizing committee said that 492 delegates from 65 countries will attend the conference, the first one hosted by Turkey. The delegates will also follow two mock trials for the first time, one on a divorce case and the other on a child marriage case. IFUW's Turkish branch has tabled two additional changes to the organization's mission, asking members to focus more on the child marriage issue as well as working to make incest a crime under national laws.