"Violence Towards Women in Turkey" by Yağmur Hızlan

The past is like an old photo we always look at; it’s a memory and it’s there to remind us how things used to be. The things that have happened in the past surely stay there and are unchangeable, however they shouldn’t affect how things will be in the future. While the past reminds us how things used to be, it can also prevent us from doing the same mistakes again. The past of our world is full of both achievements and great development, but also mistakes and suffering. The mistakes and sufferings include one of our world’s biggest issues; women being seen as the weaker sex. There are lots of causes for that situation but there are also the outcomes. Women being inactive in the business world, women very rarely being elected for presidency, emotional and physical violence are just a few outcomes of the bias against women. This bias is usually similar in every country, however how and in what extent it is reflected to people’s behaviour changes a lot. In Turkey, the situation is unfortunately bad for women: Violence is the biggest and the hardest challenge women face in Turkey. 

Violence is one of the worst things a human can do to another human. Violence leaves incurable marks and can be inflicted in many forms like physical, emotional, financial, sexual etc. Thanks to the bias on women being the weaker sex, they were often shown violence in many forms. In Turkey, it wasn't such a big deal that women were exposed to violence until very recently, when the ones in charge finally noticed the situation in other countries wasn't the same as it is in Turkey. The form of violence shown to women in Turkey changes according to the situation of the woman. If she is a housewife and has a fight with her husband, the violence toward her is usually physical. If she succeeds leaving her husband, the violence becomes financial because she wasn’t allowed to work and make her own money in the first place. When the woman realises that her situation against her husband is unfair, there comes emotional and psychological violence from other men, including the ones in the court. However there is a form of violence that includes all emotional, physical, sexual and psychological; and it’s called rape. Rape in Turkey is very common and it’s increasing instead of decreasing: According to the data from women’s rights activist platform “We Will Stop Femicide”, 337 women were subjected to sexual violence and a total of 409 women were killed in 2017. In the earlier year 2016, 328 women and in 2015, 303 women were killed, mostly by their husbands or rapists. However, not only women undergo sexual violence; according to the datas of the same platform, 387 children were sexually abused in 2017, most of them being girls. Girls in Turkey also undergo harassment in streets or even taxis just because of their selection of clothing. These types of violences, especially on younger people, result in post -traumatic syndrome, anxiety, depression and also showing violence towards people who are close to them. These women who are violated may never stay the same and lose their trust on people, especially on men. Sexual violence can also cause unwanted pregnancies and women needing to get an abortion, however there are also rules against abortion which are supported by the majority of Turkey who don’t know what sexual violence feels like or are too afraid to speak up. 

Overall, the biggest challenge women face in Turkey is violence. Sexual violence is the most common type and it leaves the most scars. According to the datas, the rates of violence, including murders towards women increase while it needs to disappear. Violence leaves incurable psychological and also physical scars on people and people in Turkey surely need to be aware of the situation for it to change.