4190 women murdered in seven years.

* This news item was translated from the Turkish original “Yedi yılda 4 bin 190 kadın cinayeti gerçekleşti” published on 21.09.2011 in soL news portal.

Human Rights Association İstanbul Branch made a public statement on its recently released report on Violence Against Women. The report displays stunning data on women (who have been subject to murder, rape, molest, and violence.

According to the report, 16 women out of 100 are subjected to sexual violence while 4190 women murders occurred between 2005 and 2011. During the same period, 3074 women were raped.

The report emphasizes that while the Turkish society is witnessing sexual or physical violence against and murder of women everyday; there have been a significant increase during 2011.

Violence from the social environment and from the family

(IHD remarks the fact) that the social sensitivity for the women murders is insufficient to make any progress on the issue, yet the state takes no deterrent measures against it. The report also observes that the primary factor of human rights violations against women is the physical violence that affects the women socially, economically, politically, legally, sexually, emotionally and culturally. According to research, this violence mainly originates from the woman's own social environment and family.

Ministry submits no data on right violations

In their press release, IHD also declared that their demand for obtaining data on “human rights violations against women in Turkey” from the Ministry of Family and Social Policies was replied as “there exists no data in the Ministry on human rights violations against women in Turkey.”

On the issue of violence against women in Turkey, IHD report reveals striking numbers. Some of the data, concerning the first eight months in 2011, are listed below:

• 143 women were murdered, 76 women were injured in attempts against life, and besides, 82 rape cases were put on trial

• The murder suspects are generally very young: 25% of murder suspects are below 18 years old. The portion of suspects between 18-30 years is %24. In the cases of injury, %35 of the suspects and %65 of the victims are below 18. Finally, 82 percent of raped Turkish women are less than 18 years old.

• 16 out of 100 subject to sexual violence: Every 16 women out of 100 are subjected to sexual violence. In the period 2005-2011, the year 2009 stands out with 1126 murdered women. In total, 4190 women were killed by men during this period. The peak on rape cases is again on 2009 with 652, while a total of 3074 women were raped in this period.

• More than 110 000 women were molested: Between 2005 and 2011, 3320 women resorted to the jurisdiction due to molestation. In the same period, it is estimated that more than 110 thousand women were molested and that %40 of them never complain about it formally due to fear from family and customs.