Femicide committed by those closest to women (including their husbands, ex-husbands, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, fathers, brothers, or even their sons) has become a devastating epidemic in Turkey.
On May 2, yet another Turkish woman was murdered by her fiancé for wanting to break up.
Dilek Ceylan, 32, a mother of two, was murdered by her fiancé, Idris Nesim, 38, with a firearm in Turkey’s capital, Ankara. The police reportedly are searching for the perpetrator, who escaped.
According to the “We Will Stop Femicide Platform,” a women’s rights organization in Turkey, 280 women were murdered, and 217 women found “suspiciously dead” in 2021.
The Platform’s annual report said that 24 women had a restraining or protection order against those men who would eventually murder them. 9 women made a complaint with the police or prosecutor’s office prior to their killings. 30 of the murdered women were in the process of a divorce. The organization had no data as to whether 251 of the women killed in 2021 had had a protection order against their murderers.
According to the report, 4 percent of the victims were killed for economic reasons. 65 percent were killed for a reason that could not be found. 31 percent were killed for wanting to make a decision about their own lives.
Almost all women were murdered by someone they knew. Only 6 percent were murdered by a stranger, unidentified persons, or others. 44 percent of the victims were murdered by their husbands. The rest were murdered by their boyfriends, acquaintances, ex-husbands, relatives, fathers, ex-boyfriends, sons, or brothers.
Some examples of the murders include:
- Celal Serçe slit the throat of Nebahat Er, 35, in the city of Kocaeli for breaking up with him.
- Gülser Uyar, 77, was shot to death in her sleep by her husband, Ali Kemal Uyar, in Bursa.
- Rukiye Akgül, 31, was killed in Antalya by her husband, Emrah Akgül, who hit her on the head with an iron bar.
- Derya Damla Yurdakul, 24, was stabbed to death by her husband, Süleyman Yurdakul, in Ankara. It turned out that Derya had a restraining order against the perpetrator and that the perpetrator came to his house with the excuse of reconciliation.
- Selva El Hinedi, 22, was stabbed in the back and chest by Ayad El Hasan in the middle of the street in the city of Urfa while she was going to the hospital, where she worked as a translator. It turned out that the perpetrator killed Selva because she did not accept his marriage proposal.
The “We Will Stop Femicide Platform” has many branches across Turkey. They monitor violence against women throughout the country, preparing monthly and annual reports. They provide legal support to women who need protection from violence. They try to solve legal problems related to this violence, urging the authorities to enact laws in support of women, and actively participate in the law-making processes. They participate in related murder trials alongside the families of the victims and call on the judiciary to properly implement existing laws to secure justice for the victims, as well as those women who are still alive. They convey their views and solution proposals to Turkey’s parliament and organize trainings for women which educate them about their rights. They regularly engage with the media, trying to create social awareness and public opinion.
So how has the Turkish government responded in the face of this epidemic of deadly violence against women? Has it started a nationwide campaign to educate its citizens concerning women’s rights and gender equality? Has it enacted laws to protect women and punish the perpetrators effectively? Has it opened an emergency office with the participation of women’s rights groups including the “We Will Stop Femicide Platform” to provide much needed help to women exposed to violence, threatened, or abused by men?
No, Turkish government authorities have done none of that.
Instead, the Turkish government is rigorously devoting its time against an organization that aims to help the victims. The “We Will Stop Femicide Platform” announced on April 13 that a lawsuit was filed against them on the charge of “conducting illegal and immoral activities”. The Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office filed the lawsuit at the request of the Associations’ Desk of the Ministry of the Interior and the Istanbul Governor’s Office.
What could be behind this act by the Turkey’s Islamist government?
Of course, violence against women is not restricted to any region or country; it is an issue that affects women and girls in many places across the world in varying degrees. However, its intensity in the Muslim world, the impunity that many perpetrators enjoy, and the systematic inequality of men and women in countries governed according to Sharia law, highlights the Islamic causes behind the violence and other abuses against women.
Islam teaches that a woman is worth less than a man in many fields such as inheritance, court testimony, divorce, and even intelligence. According to Islamic scriptures, men are in charge of women. Islam even allows a man to beat his wife. According to the Hadith, Islam’s prophet Muhammad physically struck Aisha, one of his wives, for leaving the house without his permission.
Perhaps, Islam’s most dehumanizing teaching about women is its approval of sexual slavery. Islamic teachings clearly allow Muslim men to keep women as sex slaves.
The grave situation of women’s rights in Muslim countries is a testimony to Islam’s influence on the deterioration of the lives of millions of girls and women. The book “The Islamic Doctrine of Women (A Taste of Islam)” by Dr. Bill Warner meticulously details how according to the Islamic law, “women are to be subjugated to men in all things.”
This does not mean that every single act of violence, abuse, or murder of women by Muslim men is inspired or motivated by Islamic teachings. It also does not mean that only the women in the Muslim world are exposed to violence at the hands of men.
However, it is evident that these Islamic teachings that see women as less than fully human and that condone violating women’s most basic human rights have shaped the way that Muslim culture generally views and treats women. How else could one explain that the Islamist government of Turkey has launched a lawsuit to close a women’s rights organization that only aims to end murders against women?
Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara.
