It’s a Man’s World in Greek Family Courts

Hara Ventouris’ life took an opulent turn when she married into one of Greece’s shipping dynasties.

There was a seaside villa, her black Mercedes and servants to help care for the couple’s three small children.

It all went bad in 1995.

Her husband, George Ventouris, ordered her out to make room for his mistress, pregnant with their second out-of-wedlock child. He also demanded custody of the children from the marriage.

Hara Ventouris tried to fight back. But her millionaire husband was awarded child custody based in part on his fortune.

“Unfortunately in Greece when someone has a huge amount of money, they can do anything they want,” said Hara Ventouris, 37.

But female lawyers, politicians and activists are banding together to push for a new family court that they hope will change the way divorce and child custody cases are handled.

The proposed court is part of a larger initiative by Greek women to erase inequities in laws and customs in a nation that only formally outlawed the dowry system in 1983.

Some changes--prompted by the European Union and Greece’s modernizing economy--are clearly evident. More women are in the work force, and the birth rate is down sharply as women delay marriage for career and lifestyle reasons.

But society is often more easily modified than bureaucracy. The legal system--and especially child custody and divorce issues--have become one of the key showdowns for feminists.

“In attitude we have accomplished a certain amount, but not in practice,” said Margaret Papandreou, the American-born former wife of the late Premier Andreas Papandreou.

For Margaret Papandreou, establishing a family court would be an important domestic victory in her mainly international campaigns, which include trying to promote cultural ties with Greece’s longtime rival, Turkey.

The court’s supporters hope to get parliamentary approval this fall. But Bobbis Georgoulos, a press spokesman for the Justice Ministry, said creating the court “is not a priority for the ministry” at the moment.

In 1983, Greek legal reforms abolished a father’s right to sole parental authority over children. Theoretically, they imposed equality among parents seeking child custody.

But old mentalities die hard. In some cases, judges still award custody on the basis of the economic assets of the parent instead of giving weight to the emotional well-being of the children, as is done in the United States and many other European nations, activists say.

“The courts should be based on the interests of the child . . . affection, love, care, concern. These things you cannot put money signs on,” Margaret Papandreou said.

There are no comprehensive statistics available on custody cases in Greece. But Margaret Papandreou said anecdotal evidence suggests men are still favored in court rulings because of their greater financial resources--a consequence of Greece’s weak rules enforcing alimony and child support payments.

“In Greece, the paradox exists that we create laws but never implement them,” said Chrisoula Contoyiannis, director of the Greek branch of the International Social Service, a worldwide agency that deals with intercountry adoptions and legal rights of foreigners.

The proposed custody reforms would bring in neutral social agencies to assess the competence of each parent, said Layla Andoniou, who is a member of the group pushing the family court proposal and was a member of the lawyers’ committee that drew up the 1983 reform laws.

Obtaining a divorce also could become easier under the proposed reforms.

Instead of having separate rulings on alimony, child custody and the termination of the marriage, all decisions would be made at the same time. The current system allows each ruling to be appealed individually, which can drag out a divorce for years.