Women & Turkey

Always a power tool, 2020 has seen social media more than ever broadcast global issues and movements, prompting worldwide involvement and change. From keeping safe during the COVID-19 outbreak and the BLM movement, we have in recent days seen the #womenempoweringwomen hijack Instagram with the flurry of black and white selfies posted by women across the globe.

So before rushing to post your best selfie in a flattering filter, there is a much deeper story hidden behind the hashtag. Her name is Pinar Gultekin.

Pinar had been reported missing on July 16th in a province of Turkey, and discovered just days later in what was described as a brutal murder. Since then, a man has been detained by local police. But the alleged killing has gone beyond another statistic, and has since shone a torch on the nation as having one of the highest rate of female homicides amongst the world.

In Turkey, it is common for news broadcasts to project black and white images of women who have been killed. This is one of the origins of the now trending hashtag, and the millions of images women have now uploaded in response.

So, I decided to do some further investigating.

On Sunday, protests across Ankara in Turkey took place in protest of the government’s intention to withdraw from conventions that help prevent violence against women in the country. Despite it just being a few weeks since the alleged murder of Pinar, there is widespread speculation that Turkey will withdraw from the Istanbul Convention which was ratified in 2012.

It should be noted that Turkey was the first country to ratify the 2011 Council of Europe accord that sought to prevent violence against women, including marital rape and female genital mutilation. Since then, murder rates of women have almost doubled, with many conservative groups complaining that it threatens traditional family values. Rights group “We Will Stop Femicides Platform” which led the demonstration on Sunday believe that 146 women were killed by men in the first half of 2020. Last year the number was a total of 474, and 440 were killed in the previous year of 2018.

It is further believed that whilst the treaty was ‘ratified’, it was not implemented into its legislation, thus creating a loophole for Turkish women to fall vulnerable to violence at the hands of their family members, husbands and former partners. The alleged killer arrested for Pinar’s murder is believed to be an ex boyfriend. His excuse? “She threatened to let my wife know about the relationship. She was asking for money. I killed her in a moment of rage.” So to protect his little secret, he allegedly then beat and strangled her to death, before burning her body in a garbage bin and covering it in concrete.

Since the convention was introduced, the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) continues to roll back any enacted legislation that threatens their traditional values. Earlier this month, the AKP deputy chair Kurtumlus highlighted that the Istanbul convention was “very wrong”.

According to Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, women are not equal to men and that those without children are deemed “deficient”. Further to this, former prime minister Binali Yıldırım recommended that men verbally abuse women for wearing shorts, rather than physically attack them.

You may wonder how the justice system interprets these cases amongst the conflicting legislation with the beliefs of Turkey’s leaders. Well, the sentences are commonly based on the appearance of the perpetrator when they appear in court. So common in fact that it is referred to as “tie reduction” by locals, with men who appear in court sporting neckties and suits during a court appearance are more likely to receive a lighter sentence.

There have been strong calls for reform amongst the conditional release of offenders sentenced for charges relating to domestic violence. Victims are not informed once their attacker has been released, and an example relating to the tragic impacts of this was a wife was stabbed 20 times in January after her husband was granted permission during a short release to return home from an open prison.

You may also ask about Turkey’s viewpoint on restraining orders, a common path many women take as the first step in protecting themselves against perpetrators. The rate of obtaining one in Turkey is rather slim, thus diminishing the hope of women seeking safety for themselves. Of the 55, 757 women that applied for protection in 2016, just 9, 429 were granted shelter according to the Council of Europe.

IN shedding greater light of the #womenempoweringwomen movement, I hope this has provided greater clarity in the issues of violence that continue to grip many parts of the world. Further to this, it is the responsibility of the rights group in Turkey to track the number of homicides relating to domestic violence, after the government admitted to not keeping records.

Amongst the social media solidarity of women globally, the women of Turkey are urging the world to highlight the continued vulnerability they are falling to at the hands of their perceived protectors, the government, much like the movement we recently saw for the justice sought for Breonna Taylor’s murder in the United States.