Siddhanth Goel
Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
Introduction:
Though we think that we are trying to make this world a safer place for women to live in, it is unfortuante how mistaken we are. With every passing day, the rate of women deaths is rising. In 2017, a total of 87,000 girls and women were murdered worldwide according to a 2018 report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime of which 137 girls and women were killed intentionally by their family or partners every day[1]. In countries like Argentina, India, Turkey and Pakistan, women are killed because of a patriarchal mindset. They are murdered because they crossed the boundaries of religion, they fell in love with a man in the wrong family or engaged in sexual ties before marriage. These crimes continue to take place because the legal system here fails to see the perpetrators. If the society only fails to see the perpetrators, then how are women ever going to be safe?
Practice of Femicide:
The practice of femicide is not uncommon in a country like Turkey. The people in Turkey fear to open their social media accounts and read newspapers because they don’t want to see another black and white photo of a woman who is no more in this world succumbing to violence. In Turkey, between 2016 and 2018, 932 women lost their lives due to domestic violence and not only this, forty women were killed in the first two months of 2020[2]. Recently a 27-year-old student named Pinar Gültekin was killed by her former boyfriend out of jealousy. Then he tried to dispose off the corpse by burning it in the nearby jungle but failed and upon failure dumped it in the bin and filled it with concrete[3]. This manifests the brutal picture of the country’s high femicide rate. The horrendous story doesn’t end here. Instead of making attempts to prevent such violence, the police charged the people who were conducting protests against brutalities on women. Even after having the constitutional rights to carry out a peaceful protest, the police acted towards them illegally and yet, no fingers were raised on the administration.
The issue of violence against women is deeply rooted in the Turkish society. According to the 2009 study on prevention strategies, 42% of girls aged 15 -20 years in Turkey, suffered some kind of physical or sexual violence[4]. Though they wanted to eradicate this problem in the society but actually it never happened. Instead, the situation of Turkey deteriorated with each passing day and in 2019, 474 women were murdered and again mostly by partners and relatives. Given the rise in domestic violence due to the coronavirus lockdown the cases are expected to rise immensely. Not only this, the Turkish government doesn’t even keep the record of deaths of women. The data is being recorded by the experts and campaign group, ‘We Will Stop Femicide’ made by the family members of the victims. Another woman named Emine Bulut was killed in 2019, in a café because she asked for divorce[5]. All the countries are working on improving their economies, developing their infrastructure, educating people and what not, but they have failed themselves miserably when it comes to women protection. They have failed themselves by not educating men enough for understanding that even women are human beings and deserve to be treated equally.
Inaccessibility to Education and Politics:
This issue can never be eradicated from Turkey because of the inability and reluctance on the part of the government to take effective actions against it. Lack of government support and ineffectiveness of quality education are worsening the ground situation. Gender inequality is further degenerating and collapsing the societal equilibrium. How can one expect people to treat women with dignity if they are not even properly educated? Mostly women in Turkey are not given a chance to make political decisions and even if they become part of the politics, they are never really involved in the decision-making process.
Istanbul Convention:
The Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention, is an international convention aimed at protecting the victims by ending the impunity of perpetrators. It was launched in 2011 and Turkey was one of the signatories. The purpose of this convention was to protect women against domestic violence, sexual violence, and any form of discrimination against women and promoting equality. They also frame policies for the assistance and protection of the women.
Challenges to Istanbul Convention:
Even though Turkey was the first country to adopt the Convention, the women in the country are unsafe. In fact, it is considered to be one of the most threatening countries for women. The AKP party of Turkey finds this convention intimidating against the traditional family values and culture. Small but powerful lobby groups have challenged this Istanbul Convention time and again and claim that it encourages divorce and immoral life. This is still being debated in the parliament of Turkey. Not only this, the senior ministers make public comments that disregard and disrespect women in public and openly claim that women are not equal to men and those without children are deficient. Now when the men in power will prove to be chauvinists, then why other men in the country will abide by the law? How can we expect a woman to stay safe in a country like that? Only the framing of laws is not important but enforcing them is equally important. More often than not it has been observed that murder and rape cases involving female victims have been patently and openly buried or have been brushed off as trivial in order to curb voices of dissent and justice.
The Way Forward:
No matter which part of the world you belong to, women are not safe anywhere because this does not happen in only one country but is prevalent in other countries as well like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Argentina and many more. This can only be eradicated from the society when we start believing that women are equally human as men and they have equal rights in everything and when we start believing that after doing so, we are not ruining any family traditions or cultures or violating religious practices and sentiments. Only education won’t help but also, we have to free ourselves from certain beliefs and practices. The men of the society have to stand with the women against those who still believe in this patriarchal system and who don’t consider women as autonomous individuals.
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
Albert Einstein
REFERENCES:
France 24. 2020. Femicide: A Global Scourge – France 24. [online] Available at: <https://www.france24.com/en/20191119-femicide-a-global-scourge> [Accessed 30 July 2020].
News, T., 2020. Worrying Domestic Violence, Femicide Cases Fuel Tension In Turkish Parliament | Daily Sabah. [online] Turkey.timesofnews.com. Available at: <https://turkey.timesofnews.com/political/worrying-domestic-violence-femicide-cases-fuel-tension-in-turkish-parliament-daily-sabah.html> [Accessed 30 July 2020].
(www.dw.com), D., 2020. Turkey’s Long History Of Femicides | DW | 24.07.2020. [online] DW.COM. Available at: <https://www.dw.com/en/femicide-rates-turkey/a-54311038> [Accessed 30 July 2020].
McKernan, B., 2020. Murder In Turkey Sparks Outrage Over Rising Violence Against Women. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/23/turkey-outrage-rising-violence-against-women> [Accessed 30 July 2020].
Balkan Insight. 2020. Women Face Rising Violence In Male-Dominated Turkey. [online] Available at: <https://balkaninsight.com/2019/09/02/women-face-rising-violence-in-male-dominated-turkey/> [Accessed 30 July 2020].
(www.dw.com), D., 2020. Femicides In Turkey: A Problem That Is Being Ignored | DW | 09.12.2019. [online] DW.COM. Available at: <https://www.dw.com/en/femicides-in-turkey-a-problem-that-is-being-ignored/a-51587652> [Accessed 30 July 2020].
Bureau des Traités. 2020. Liste Complète. [online] Available at: <https://www.coe.int/fr/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/rms/090000168008482e> [Accessed 30 July 2020].
Goodreads.com. 2020. Change Quotes (6851 Quotes). [online] Available at: <https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/change> [Accessed 30 July 2020].
