Women In Turkey: Through The Fears Of Femicide and Abuse
Running through the street with full of joy, I suddenly saw the life from a woman’s view at the age of five. It all happened to me, by seeing the woman who was lying down with full of blood at the corner of our old street. She was killed by two hooligans as a “punishment” for trying to stop them from raping her. The news on the TV always seemed “unrealistic” to me until that day; but it was there, in front of me. My mother grabbed me by my arm and moved me away from the scene of crime swiftly. I was just able to hear the old man who was shouting behind us: “Leave this country immediately!”
As a girl who had various of disaster scenarios in mind, I always felt the obligation that I need to keep an eye open in any case. It’s the same for most of the women in the country. High school students who carry pepper gas in their school bags, female drivers who have iron sticks in their cars, women who tries to act masculine dominant in order to be out of any sexual abuse risk... Walking through the solitude street, steps can get faster with the shadow that is coming behind. Anything can be a potential risk at the middle of the night. It may sound “too paranoiac” but if you’re living in Turkey, especially in Istanbul that is the most-populated and dangerous city, it means that your similar with the precautions that change your life completely, while it’s aim was just protect to it.
If you put your fears aside and continue to your life like an ordinary male citizen, the bus driver can veer off into the woods instead of taking you home and try to rape you when you’re the last passenger on the bus like it happened to Ozgecan Aslan on 11th of February 2015. Your hands can be cut off in order to hide DNA evidence under the fingernails. The bus driver can beat you with an iron bar apparently and burn your body as a “caution”. Your burnt body can be found after much effort on the part. This is not one of the fictional disaster scenarios but the truth. You can be any of the other thousands of women who are raped or victims of femicide.
According to Gender Equality Report, Turkey is the 125th out of 142 countries. Our country has long struggled with high rates of gender-based violence relative to European countries. Research on Domestic Violence Against Women In Turkey showed that 40% of the women are subjected to violence on a period of their lives and the rate increases day by day. Just between 2002-2015, there were 5406 women killed and the men violence against their wives leads the general results. Every morning, we’re waking up with a different femicide that make our bloods run cold.
Most of the cases are still on the court and trying to be solved for a long time on femicide. Women don’t have enough right protection for both abuse and murders. Still, law system has abatement according to the woman’s virginity in abuse punishments. Women are all smothered under the male-authority and seen as sexual objects. There’s a mindset that becomes aroused by women’s clothes, hair and even by the laughs. If a minister stands up and says “Laughing in a public place is virtueless for the women,” in the middle of the General Assembly, it shows that a point is needed to be clear: The problem is not with the woman who laughs and talks loudly in a public place, the problem is with the ones who become aroused even by a laughing.
“What we call femicide is actually murder of women who revolt against abuse and push for independence,” says the We Will Stop Femicides Platform. In past ten years, I had enough time to think about the scene and what the old man said. “Leaving the country” phrase actually means supporting the femicide by ignoring and doing nothing about it. What we need is to stand up in order to make our voice heard. The number of Ozgecans and the other thousands of women can only decrease by again, us, women. We can do this together, now or never.
Works Cited
Asquith, Christina. "Turkish Men Get Away: With Murder Ozgecan Aslan and Violence Against Women in Turkey." NY Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2016 <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/opinion/ozgecan-aslan-and-violence-against-women-in-turkey.html>.
Ertan, Nazlan. Violence Against Women In Turkey Increases Both In Number And Brutality. Hurriyet Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2016. <http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/violence-against-women-in-turkey-increases-both-in-number-and-brutality.aspx?pageID=238&nid=91880>.
Kaptan, Ozgul. "Turkiye’de Kadina Yönelik Siddetin On Yili" ["Ten Years Of Violence Against Women In Turkey"]. Research Turkey. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2016. <http://researchturkey.org/tr/a-decade-of-violence-against-women-in-turkey/>.
Khazan, Olga. "In Turkey, Not Even Posters of Women Are Safe From Violence." The Atlantic. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2016. <http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/03/domestic-violence-against-women-video-turkey/388544/>.