An(other) Outrageous Civil War in Turkey

Male perpetrators killed 257 women in Turkey according to the data compiled by bianet in 2011. We could summarize the report to save up some time, but we won't. You should read this article (signed Çiçek Tahaoğlu) together with all the previous reports in bianet that are labeled violence against women and then this report to get even more horrified by the data on rapes, harassments, the portion of girls to adult women, excuses of men etc. There is no such thing as spending more-than-enough time for this subject.

Our calculators tell that the above number means some 21 murders a month. Now, compare this number with any other civil war you are aware of, just to see how they fit together. While a civil war is of course a more complicated political phenomenon, we propose that the social outrage and indignation towards the patriarchal system should be equivalent to one in case of a civil war.

The war against women is all over the country. From streets to homes, from strangers to family members, from television channels to courts, from pornography to parliamentarians... it comprises all the life. Therefore the defense line must be the whole country as well. And as the attack is a very well organized one (from the declarations of government leaders – especially the current ones – to the capillary vessels of the social fabric), the response must be well-organized too.

This is a call for unity and solidarity against the patriarchal system and the social mechanisms that reproduce it.

Note: We follow the activities of the platform named “We will stop the murdering of women”, that organizes demonstrations in Istanbul every other week. This commentary should also be interpreted as an invitation to participate in their events or, more generally, to join any of the many political organizations that aims at systemic solutions to patriarchy.

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.