JINHA

NEWS CENTER – According to a new report, men killed 303 women in Turkey in 2015. Nearly 8 in 10 of the women were killed by men close to them for trying to make decisions about their own lives.

An end-of-year report by the platform “We Will Stop Women Homicides” reveals the scope of femicide in Turkey. The number of femicides has risen in Turkey once again, with 237 in 2013 and 294 in 2014. The report was based on media analysis and the women’s own social media posts and previous statements.

Strikingly, a large number of the victims were married and/or mothers. Although full details were not available on all the women killed, around half had children. At least 43% were married, with another 14% having been married before. At least 29% were married with children when they were killed.

According to the report, a significant number of the women—78%—were killed as a result of their wish to make decisions about their own lives—for example, wanting a divorce. Other women were slain with transphobic, biphobic and homophobic motives.

The killers were overwhelmingly the men closest to the women. 90 women were killed by their own husbands; 40 by their boyfriends; 20 by their ex-husbands; 10 by their sons; 10 by their ex-boyfriends; 8 by their boyfriends; and 75 by individuals they knew, such as relatives. 16 of the women were killed for resisting sexual assault.

27 of the women killed had informed official institutions of the danger of death they were facing and were under protection. 24 of the women were killed because they tried to stop violence against another woman.

The platform “We Will Stop Women Homicides” called in the report for Turkey’s Parliament to immediately pass the Özgecan Law, a proposed law named after femicide victim Özgecan Aslan. The law would provide for higher levels of sentencing for femicide perpetrators as a deterrent of the high rate of killings.

The platform also called for Turkey’s Ministry of Family and Social Policies to be renamed the Ministry of Women; for implementation of laws on protection orders and Law 6284 on violence against women; and for Turkey to act in accordance with the Istanbul Convention addressing violence against women, of which it was the first signatory. The report also called for an end to terms like “domestic violence” or “family violence” that obscure violence against non-married women.

(fk/cm)