Gender-based Violence

Nearly every day, women experience sexual violence, harrasment or rape, and the mainstream media reflects this violence as commonplace.

At bianet, we use the reports of the mainstream media to lay bare the extent of male violence against women.

Here is an extract of last month's count:

30 June

Injury

A woman washing carpets in front of her home in the Fatsa district of Ordu was wounded by a shot. It is not clear where the bullet came from. The investigation continues.

Rape

S.D. (29), a customer at the Vertigo bar in Istanbul's central Beyoğlu district, has filed a complaint with the police about a bar employee and his friend, accusing them of raping her. Bar employee U.K. (34) was taken into custody, but rejected the accusations. An examination found S.D. to have been beaten and raped. Sperm traces have been sent for examination. U.K. has been released pending trial, while the other suspect, a security guard in another bar, is being searched for.

28 June

Murder

Schizophrenic Cem İlbey (34) killed his mother, retired art history teacher Aysel İlbey (62) and then set the house on fire in the Menderes district of Izmir.

27 June

Murder

Elif K. (44), stabbed by her husband İ.K. during an argument, died in hospital in Kahramanmaraş.

Attempted murder, injury

Nihat Horoz (40), a restaurant owner in Eskişehir, attempted to set fire to a waitress working for him by drenching her in petrol.

Moukmanat Abdoulaoiova (42) was taken to hospital, while Horoz, who was drunk, was released on order of the prosecutor after having made a statement.

26 June

Murder

Büşra Özkan (15), living in Germany, was killed by her father Mehmet Özkan (45) who said that she was "living too freely".

25 June

Murder

Ali Servet Dayı (37) attempted to strangle Banu Bozer, his former fiancee, whose home on the first floor he entered through the window. When the woman was motionless and he thought she was dead, Dayı called the police and said he would commit suicide. The police came to the home and stopped Dayı from killing himself. Bozer was taken to hospital but entered a vegetative state. She later died. Dayı was arrested.

Rape

M.B. (23), said to be unbalanced, raped a young girl, N.A. When she was taken to hospital, she was found to have lost a lot of blood. The perpetrator is said to have attempted to rape a tenant's daughter before.

Murder

Following a hearing of the divorce case that his wife had initiated, L.K. (43) killed his bed-ridden mother Zarife K. (87).

Rape, forced prostitution

When E.F.S. (13) and her father M.S. were stopped at a gendarmerie checkpoint in Tekirdağ, they did not have IDs on them and were taken to the station.

E.F.S. told the gendarmerie that her father raped her and forced her into prostitution. A gynecological examination showed that the girl was not a virgin. The father was taken to the prosecution, which released him.

The list goes on, with murders, rape, harrassment, forced prostititution and other violence.

bianet has been keeping a count since April 2008. The Turkish list, which can be found here, has been read nearly 20,000 times. (EZÖ/AG)