JINHA

NEWS CENTER – In Turkey, where the raping and burning to death of Mersin university student brought national and international attention to the problem of femicide in the country, the problem continues, with 32 women slain in February.

With International Women's Day fast approaching, Turkey leaves women with no shortage of reasons to take to the streets on March 8. In addition to the femicides, 15 women were seriously wounded by male violence; 28 girls were pushed into sex work; nine children were sexually abused; and countless women were subjected to police violence over the course of the month. Many other instances of violence have likely gone unrecorded in the media.

Most of the women were shot, knifed or choked to death. Husbands killed six women. Fathers killed two girls and two women. Friends killed four women.Others died at the hands of their rapists, grooms and stepsons.Five women's killers are unidentified. One of the women killed this month was carefully cut up into pieces by her husband and murderer. Another was knifed in 30 places.Six women's suicides took place under suspicious circumstances, one of them a 12-year-old girl. Another was a woman who had been forced to marry at a young age.

In the case of femicide, violence does not end after the murder is complete, with media explanations for male violence ranging from spreading accusations that women cheated on men to excusing men as being "frustrated in an argument." Meanwhile, in court, rapists and killers of women rarely see jail time, thanks to easily obtained sentence reductions for good behavior.

This month, police and state violence against women protesting the rape and murder of Özgecan Aslan was particularly widespread in Mersin, Adana and Istanbul. In addition, high school administrators attacked two Mersin students for allegedly taking part in protests. Men harassed protesting women widely.

In the Parliament, male AKP MPs attacked two Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) female MPs. A mayor from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) harassed a woman working for him. In addition, this month reports emerged of guards' sexual harassment and physical abuse of women prisoners in Gebze prison.

Of the 15 women wounded this month by male violence, 8 were wounded by husbands or ex-husbands, usually because they asked for a divorce. Some were wounded in attempts at abduction and rape.An 11-year-old Syrian girl was beaten and abandoned.Of the 9 sexual abuse cases this month, 8 were of girls, including one 2-year-old, as well as two high school students raped repeatedly by classmates.

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