Since1990, the “Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation” has offered shelter for women trying to change their lives.

Bianet talked to Filiz Karahasanoglu, Alev Ayan, Gülsun Kanat, Zelal Yalcin and Ülfet Tayli, all of whom work at “Purple Roof.”

Kanat is responsible for meeting the women applying for shelter, while Yalcin is responsible for media and public relations.

Yalcin studied statistics. As a student, she was part of a feminist initiative, and after working in the private sector for a while, she found a job at the foundation.

Secrecy and no violence 

The most important issues for women’s shelters are that their locations remain secret, and that the women staying there do not use violence towards each other or their children.

When people dial the telephone number directory and ask for a women’s shelter, the operators today automatically give them the number of “Purple Roof.” The Internet and word of mouth have also been very effective to spread awareness of the foundation.

However, Yalcin also points to a lack of communication between the police, the governor’s office and health services.

Gülsun Kanat studied social services in Britain. “We are not trying to help women or decide for them, or do everything for them. Rather, we offer safety and information.”

Risk analysis on arrival 

“When a woman comes here, we do a risk analysis.We try to understand whether she can live in the house where she has experienced violence, whether she can go to relatives, or whether she needs to move to a shelter.”

For Kanat, “Women are not victims, but they are victimised.”

“If they come to us with a sense of shame, or a sense of failure because they have been unable to make their marriages work, or because they have not been able to take responsibility for the children, then we try to change that feeling. Really, the fact that they were able to stand the violence they experienced shows how strong they are. After all, they apply to us voluntarily. When I see them, it makes me stronger, too. However much men try to oppress them, women are so strong that they can resist. It is just this strength which drives men mad.”

Women can enter the shelters with sons up to 12 years old and with their daughters. Their privacy is respected. They have to return to the shelter at 11 pm in the winter and 12 pm in the summer, just so that it would become clear if anything had happened to them. (NZ/GG/AG)