Sexual Abuse Against Women: Turkey

In the metro, going to Kadıköy. Wearing shorts, as it’s a boiling day. Suddenly, I turn my face to the right and see a man, who is looking at my bare legs. It makes me uncomfortable, and I try to obscure my legs. My inner voice tells me, “Why did you wear shorts? Don’t you know in public transportation you should not?” You may ask why I should not wear. You can’t escape from the eyes of men that are directly looking at your legs when you wear them. That’s how it is to be a woman in Turkey: protecting yourself from the sexual thoughts and actions of men.

We, the women, encounter some kind of sexual abuse every day in our country. Despite we try to prevent this abuse, even with precaution, there is no way to escape from it. I can give you an example from the most known event in our country. Özgecan Aslan was a 20-year-old girl. She got into a minibus, where she was the only person in, and Suphi Altındöken, the driver, brought her to a quiet place, where he attempted to rape her. She tried to protect herself by scratching and spraying a pepper spray on his face, but that was when he got furious and stabbed Özgecan. Additionally, he cut her hands and burnt them to destroy the DNA in her fingers (Milliyet). This can seem like a really violent event to you, but even worse happens in Turkey. Why? Because the men can’t control themselves and attempt to rape the women, a lot of them do rape, and they kill them afterwards because of the possibility of the women suing them.

Most of the men in our country are raised to believe that the women should veil all of their body, but they stare at the bare body parts of the ones who do not veil themselves. According to them, “their women,” (they call their wives “their women”) should not be seen by the men from the outside world. However, they do not veil their body to protect themselves from the women from the outside world.

As “their women” don’t show any bare parts from their body, they miss seeing women that are not covering themselves. Therefore, the women that are not veiled “seduce” them, and they end up looking at the bare body parts of women or attempting to rape them. At least, this is what most of the men say when they are claimed to be sexual abusers.

This problem is not really easy to solve, but not impossible, either. But of course, we need more efficient solutions than the pepper sprays. As everything starts with the family atmosphere, the first step is to have compulsory lessons for parents, which teach them to raise their children with the belief that there is no difference between the women and men, and the women are not required to veil their body. They can wear whatever they want, like men. If children are taught to believe this from their childhood, it’s more likely that they will continue their life with this belief and teach their children to believe this.

However, there may be some people that continue teaching this imbalance and obligation of women veiling to their children as a normal thing. Therefore, the way to make men learn women are free to wear whatever they want is to make teachers in their schools emphasize the women and men equality all the time. They should stop encouraging girls to wear turban or burqa or abaya. On the contrary, they should tell them they are not obliged to wear these restrictive clothes. By this, the girls will start wearing other things, and the men will get used to seeing women without a veil. Even if they are not taught to believe this in their family atmosphere, the ideas in school will really influence them.

Being a woman can be fearful and hard in Turkey as you don’t know when you can encounter sexual abuse, but this doesn’t mean there is no way to change it. Maybe this problem will never end, but the sexual thoughts and actions of men will probably continue if we don’t teach them that they are not superior to women and not veiling is a normal thing. Why would a gender need to cover all of their body to protect itself while the other gender doesn’t make any effort to do so?

Works Cited

"Özgecan Aslan Cinayetinde Türkiye'yi Kahreden Detay!" Milliyet. N.