In this article, Grace Liang Speaks on the current Femicide Crisis in Turkey and how you can help.
Between 2008 and 2017, 2 025 women were killed by men. At least 474 women have been killed in 2019. As of August this year, there have been 144 female murder victims in 2020. All of these women had been killed, simply because they were women. They were victims of femicide.
The definition of femicide, from Oxford Languages, is “the killing of a woman or girl, in particular by a man and on account of her gender.” Femicide perpetrators include serial killers who target women and terrorists from the “incel” subculture. There are also men who were rejected and feel entitled to sex or a relationship, or families who feel like their daughter were dishonorable for resisting tradition. All of these examples are rooted in the idea that women are lesser than men-abominable just by existing, or required to fit into certain roles just to be deserving of life.
Ceren Osdemir, a ballet dancer, was followed to her home and stabbed by Ozgur Arduc, a felon who had escaped prison after killing a child, who had followed many women in attempts to kill them. This was in December of 2019. More recently and more personally, the body of Pinar Gultekin, a college student, was found on July 21, 2020, strangled and beaten. Guletkin’s murderer was a barman by the name of Cemal Metin Avci, who killed her because she rejected his advances. Avci, Gültekin’s murderer, was charged for homicide and detained, his claims that he “acted on impulse” having been disproved by the court.
This is not the case for most victims of femicide. “Acting on impulse” is a common defense that many men use to attempt to reduce their sentences. Many men also use respectability politics to their advantage; the term “tie reduction” was coined after a pattern emerged, of men having their sentences reduced when they wore ties and other formalwear to court for femicide. Turkish courts are expected to deal with cases of violence against women within 24 hours of reporting, with no time for the victim to compile evidence, resulting in light punishments for abusers and ineffective restraining orders.
The political and social climate of Turkey is not favorable for victims of gendered violence, and women who want to be vocal about their experiences. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has publicly made comments saying women are inferior to men, and they are not complete without children. Former prime minister Binali Yıldırım had encouraged verbally harassing women who wear shorts in public. Divorce is commonly viewed as a disruption of traditional family structure. Censorship, an issue affecting all political dissenters, is rampant in Turkey and prevents many women from speaking out about abuse.
Many conservative forces, such as the AKP party and the Saadet party, are urging Turkey to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, an 2011 treaty on gender-based violence that called violence against women is a human rights violation. The convention, when ratified, criminalized psychological violence, stalking, physical violence, sexual violence (including rape), all non-consensual acts of a sexual nature with a person, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, forced abortion, and forced sterilisation, honour crimes, and sexual arrassment. These reasonable demands against violence were met with backlash saying they “destroyed traditional family structure”.
Women should not have to fear for their life just because they are women, or conform to gender roles just to be deserving of basic human rights. The femicide crisis in Turkey is denying women the very right to life, and the factors that allowed the crisis to exacerbate also increased gendered violence and sexism as a whole. Sexism is an issue women around the world can emphasize with, and that men should be compassionate about; by educating ourselves, spreading awareness, and helping those working to combat sexism, we can help women get justice during and protection from the femicide crisis, and reduce misogyny all over the world.
Organizations in Turkey are working to help women, either indirectly through supporting general human rights and alleviating poverty, or directly by focusing on women’s political rights. They accept donations, volunteers, or sometimes both. Below is a list, linked with their websites.
KADEM (https://kadem.org.tr/en/)
HasNa (https://hasna.org/leadership-training-for-turkish-womens-ngos-fighting-against-gender-based-violence/)
Turkish Women Union (http://www.turkkadinlarbirligi.org/tr/)
The Borgen Project (https://borgenproject.org/)
The 30% Club (https://30percentclub.org/about/chapters/turkey)
Cagdas Yasami Destekleme Dernegi (Association in Support of Contemporary Living) (https://www.cydd.org.tr/)
There is also a list of petitions here:
Istanbul convention - http://chng.it/72ZPGwGtfK
Life sentences for those guilty of femicide - http://chng.it/Ct966GBQHk
Banning victim-abuser child marriages - http://chng.it/zPFv2ZsRGs
Justice for Emine Bulut - http://chng.it/y8hmR2MMYy
Justice for Elif Kaydn - http://chng.it/8cn8MzyHty
Opposing abatements for abusers with good behavior - http://chng.it/q9YkBPZQJH
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