According to women’s rights defenders, the Turkish government justifies, in the name of the family, measures that have detrimental effects on their freedoms and security.
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Monday, November 25, 2024, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, feminist organizations in Turkey are calling for rallies in major cities. For NGOs, the stakes of this day are greater each year, because Turkey marks a clear decline in protection against violence.
One number sums up the seriousness of the situation: 48 is the number of women killed by a man in October 2024 in Türkiye. This is a monthly record since 2010. The figure is provided by the “We will stop feminicides” platform, at the forefront of the fight against violence against women for almost 15 years. Over the first ten months of the year, the NGO counted at least 343 femicides and 207 “suspicious deaths” – a term used when there is serious doubt about the death of a woman, which could be a disguised murder in suicide or accident.
What the NGOs denounce is an entire system that does not protect women, at all levels, starting with police stations, where those who find the strength to file a complaint are not always listened to. But also in the courts, where certain judges find mitigating circumstances for perpetrators of femicide. Sometimes they reduce the sentence because the murderer “behaved well” in court or grant parole to abusive husbands who rush to kill their wives.
Feminists hold the authorities responsible for this climate. Because even if, on paper, Turkey has an adequate law, the priority claimed by the government is the protection of the family, presented as endangered by Western influences, and by feminist NGOs themselves. same. In the name of the family, the government justifies measures which, according to women’s rights defenders, have deleterious effects on their freedoms and security.
The president thing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan withdrew his country three years ago from the Istanbul Convention, the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women. For NGOs, this withdrawal was a turning point. “It’s simple: since we started recording feminicides, the only year their numbers decreased was 2011 – the year Turkey signed the Istanbul Convention.notes Sevinç Alim, who belongs to the youth branch of the “We will stop feminicides” platform. Its withdrawal, combined with a policy of impunity and a sexist official discourse that defends the family rather than women, has created a climate that encourages murderers.”
A few weeks ago, the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asserted on the contrary that the withdrawal of the Istanbul Convention had not caused women to lose anything, and that alcohol consumption was the main reason for the violence, which no study supports.
Alongside the increase in violence, the Turkish feminist movement is gaining momentum. Feminists are more and more numerous, mobilized and young. We see more and more students and even high school girls in gatherings. Even if the latter – especially those of November 25 – are generally prohibited and repressed by the police.
