Sexist Istanbul Police Chief

On Saturday, feminists gathered in Taksim to protest against the Istanbul Chief of Police Celalettin Cerrah.

In a recent murder case of a young women, Münevver Karabulut (18), whose body was found cut up in a waste container, the police chief has provoked rage by saying, “But did the family control her?”

Call for resignation

Members of the Feminist Collective have now called on Cerrah to resign, saying that “Cerrah should first of all control his mouth.”

When criticised for the long time that had passed since the murder without the murderer having been found, Cerrah had said, “They should have controlled their daughter. If you had a daughter, when would you want her to come home? Would you allow her to stay at her boyfriend’s house until late in the evening?”

He thus reflected the accusations levelled at him at the Karabulut family.

The women, who met at around 1.30 pm, carried placards with pictures of the murder victim and some with Cerrah, his mouth taped closed.

They shouted slogans such as “Men attack, the state protects them” and “Our labour, our bodies and our identity are ours.”

Following a sit-down protest, a press statement was read.

Women rather than perpetrators targeted

The women argued that Cerrah had targeted not those using violence against women, but women themselves.

“It is enough to be a woman in order to be murdered. And when they talk like that, they legitimise male domination with sexist discourses.”

The women accused Cerrah of similar sexist behaviour in the past.

“When a Croatian woman was sexually harassed in İstiklal Street, he ignored the damage/trauma the woman experienced and dared to worry about the effects on tourism. Four years ago, he said, ‘The people should help us, we should eradicate transvestites.’ Ever since, transvestites have been killed.”

The women said that they were not prepared to be offered up to male domination:

“Enough is enough. A biased, sexist person like Cerrah, who creates victims out of women by turning them into ‘objects to be controlled’ needs to be dismissed. We don’t want a chief of police who discriminates according to religion, language, race or gender, who is unaware of positive discrimination, and who protects murderers rather than victims. And we will not leave the streets and squares at night!” (BÇ/AG)