Violence towards Women

According to newspaper items, men killed ten women in the last ten days. In the month of May, 32 women were killed, according to the count which bianet keeps.

Hülya Gülbahar, president of the Association for the Support and Education of Women Candidates (KA-DER) says that urgent action is needed to deal with male violence.

Gülbahar, who is also a lawyer, says that there have been serious reforms in the laws, so that there is little left to criticise there. However, the real problem lies in the lack of application of these laws.

Government ignoring the issue

Referring to a comment by an MP of Siirt, eastern Turkey, where a 17-year-old young woman was recently attacked by her relatives, she said: "When the government describes violence towards women as 'solitary' events and denies it, it becomes ridiculous."

The European Court of Human Rights has decreed that Turkey must pay compensation to Nahide Opuz, who said that she and her mother were not protected from her husband by the state. Her husband later killed her mother. The court made mention of the gender discrimination which made such violence possible.

According to Gülbahar, "In a country where almost five women are killed every day, we have to struggle to have violence against women dealt with as a social problem."

The lawyer said that by placing the responsibility of dealing with male violence at the door of women's rights organisations and NGOs was conveying the message "We ignore male violence, we will not work on this issue."

Women's complaints not taken seriously

According to research carried out in 51 cities by the Prime Ministerial General Directorate on the Status of Women, the most striking finding was that 92 percent of women experiencing violence did not file complaints.

Gülbahar said, "Even if the remaining 8 percnet complain, we read about the lack of protection they are offered on Page 3 of the newspapers. Nahide Opuz and Güldünya Tören (a young woman killed by her relatives) also applied to the police. Last week, a woman in Izmir was killed by her husband in front of the court because she wanted to get divorced. This shows again that women are not protected."

Gender equality must be the base

Legislation, so the lawyer, cannot by itself overcome the gender discrimination which is inextricably linked to the gender based violence.

"If you take steps towards preventing violence against women without basing it on gender equality, then you will be unsuccessful, no matter how many members of the security forces you education, no matter how much legislation you pass. Sending Istanbul's Chief of Police to Osmaniye province as a governor is not enough. If necessary, those officials who show incapability must be taken off duty. First there must be sincere intentions, then everyone must believe in gender equality, and then there must be political determination." (EZÖ/AG)