Melahat Ruacan

Melahat Senger-Ruacan (1906, Istanbul, Turkey 1974, Ankara, Turkey) was a female Turkish high court judge.

The first child of Colonel Nuri and his wife Güzide, she attended Erenköy Girls High School (Erenköy Kız Lisesi), an exclusive lycée in Istanbul, and later studied philosophy at the University of Istanbul. Following Kemal Atatürk’s establishment of Ankara as the new capital of the Turkish Republic, a new university was organized in this city. Melahat Senger moved to the new capital to attend law school (Ankara Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi) from 1925–1929 and finished her studies as the first female graduate of this new school with high honors. In 1938, she married Asım Ruacan, a colleague in law, and had one son with him.

She worked as a judge throughout Turkey, and in 1945, she was appointed to the Turkish Appellant Court (Yargıtay) as its first woman member. She decided many crucial cases. During the politically turbulent years of the Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti) administration (1950–1960) in Turkey, she was forced to retire from her post because of her steadfast refusal to bend the principles of law to serve the political party in power. She successfully challenged her forced retirement in court, and was reinstated to the appellant bench in 1963 with full honors and compensation.

Judge Ruacan was a fearless advocate of the principles of the law and was also an untiring defender of women’s rights following Atatürk’s Kemalist ideology for the Turkish Republic all her life.

She died of a heart attack in Ankara, Turkey, in 1974.