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Maeve Korengold writes about the rise in femicide in Turkey. Protests were recently sparked after 27-year-old Pinar Gültekin was murdered by her ex-boyfriend - the tragic incident is not an isolated one. Police have used force against protesters, and several arrests have been made. This article discusses the president's response to the aforementioned killing, the activists' demands, and the alleged reasons such atrocities occur.
Violence against women is common in Turkey. In 2019 alone, over four-hundred women were murdered, and the numbers have been increasing steadily over the past decade. More than twenty-six hundred women have been victims of femicide since 2010. Turkish women’s rights groups have been fighting for this cause for years, but the recent murder of Pinar Gültekin by her ex-boyfriend has resulted in a resurgence of activism demanding that there be change in legislation to protect women.
Pinar Gültekin was a twenty-seven-year-old student. She was reported missing on July sixteenth, and her body was found in a forest five days later. According to the police, her ex-boyfriend premeditated her murder and acted out of jealousy. Almost thirty other women have been murdered in similar circumstances in 2020.
Activists have taken to both social media and the streets to express their outrage. There have been many protests in Turkish cities, especially the west - here, police have been present, resulting in tussles between law enforcement and protesters. Some demonstrators have been arrested, tear-gassed, and even shot with rubber bullets. Women who attended demonstrations have reported being detained illegally and assaulted by police. Such incidents are not uncommon in Turkey. When a group of women assembled in Istanbul on November 25th, 2019, for International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, their demonstration was stopped by police using tear gas and rubber bullets.
On social media, women have been partaking in a “challenge” in which they post a black and white photo of themselves with the hashtag #challengeaccepted. This trend had existed prior to the murder of Pinar Gültekin, and the indignation that followed. The original #challengeaccepted surfaced in 2016, and was initially meant to raise awareness for cancer. The most recent version of this social media movement stemmed from a post by Brazilian journalist Ana Paula Padrão on July 17th that included the hashtag #womensupportingwomen. Since then, American celebrities and regular people have posted black and white photos of themselves with the hashtag as a means to encourage women’s empowerment, while Turkish women’s rights activists have been using the popular movement to draw attention to the rising rate of femicide in Turkey. When this version of the trend gained traction, commenters began adding information and resources pertaining to femicide in Turkey under other user’s Instagram posts. This trend has been criticized for its performative nature, but some argue that in countries like Turkey, free speech is more restricted, meaning social media movements can be a productive way to promote messages worldwide.
The day after Pinar Gültekin’d murder, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey expressed his sympathy on Twitter. He tweeted: "Yesterday, we were overwhelmed with pain when we had to learn that Pinar Gültekin was murdered by a villain. I despise all crimes committed against women.”
Several Turkish women’s rights activists feel that the government holds no consideration for the prevalent violence against women in Turkey and that they aim to cover up the femicides that occur. When a 23-year-old woman named Sule Cet was raped and thrown out of a window in 2019, the perpetrators claimed that she took her own life. The medical examiner and defense attorney described what happened to Sule Cet as consensual because she had "decided to drink alcohol with a man in an isolated place." In response to this, Hulya Gulbahar, a spokeswoman for Platform for Equality Mechanisms, said: "We will never forget that the bureau of investigation tried to hush up the case. We women resisted and showed solidarity.” Sule Cet’s trial lasted half a year and ended with both perpetrators being incarcerated.
According to Fatmagul Berktay, a professor of political science at Istanbul University, the problem lies in the idea that a man is “emasculated” when he is disobeyed by a woman, whether that be a daughter, a wife or his mother. She goes on to say that it’s about the men’s “honor” and that the lives of women are simply not valued. Selin Nakipoglu, an attorney located in Istanbul who represents victims of femicide, adds that "[Male attackers] show up in court wearing suits and ties, saying they're sorry but 'honor' made them do it, and the judges let [them] get away with it." She has been threatened repeatedly in the courtroom and has received emails and phone calls from men saying that they will rape and kill her. Selin says: "I'm not scared. But my clients are dead."
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