"Silent Screams" by Azra Nur Ozcansen

Femicide, “the gender-based murder of a woman or girl by a man” (1) is on the rise in Turkey. Within the last century, the respect for women worldwide has increased significantly, but it’s not enough as the femicides are still happening frequently in some parts of the world. The saddest part is that it happens for meaningless excuses such as “I was going to kill someone anyways; I came across her and thought I could kill her” (2). In Turkey over the past eleven years this number has multiplied dramatically. Despite Turkey being one of the first ever countries to give women voting rights (December 5th, 1934), with gender discrimination and “family honor” restricting the women’s freedom, Turkey is becoming a place where femicides are seen quite often.

In the past few months a femicide case left Turkey speechless. Emine Bulut (3) was a divorced mother who had custody of her daughter and was killed by her ex-husband, right in front of her daughter. Then he, the ex-husband, called his ex-father-in-law to say “You took my daughter away. Now I’m taking your daughter away”. And the most heart-wrenching part was her screaming “I don’t want to die” and her daughter’s cry “Mom, please don’t die”. This is just an example of the femicides that are happening in Turkey. Ex-husbands, ex-boyfriends and sometimes a guy that the victim hadn’t even met before are taking innocent women’s lives. Ceren Özdemir was another victim of a femicide case. This incident deeply saddened Turkey. She was a ballerina and was murdered by a complete stranger, and the murderer’s confession left everyone speechless. He said that he was going to kill someone anyways, whoever he comes across.  He came across Özdemir and thought he could kill her. He added that he followed other people before Özdemir but couldn’t kill them. Even though they got penalized, femicides are still happening. It can be seen in most of the recorded cases that these murders have happened because the victim was a woman, who probably “can’t defend, herself”, or “what can she do about it, she’s just a little girl”. There are many more that are unreported. All we know is what we hear from the press. 

There is another issue Turkish society deal with: family honor. Even though we haven’t heard much about it over the past months, women are killed for dignity. Honor is a very sensitive matter in Turkey and especially on the East side. If a woman’s honor is polluted, it affects the whole family. I remember seeing the news articles about women being killed for honor and me as a little girl, not making any sense of it. My opinion still hasn’t changed. It is the woman who chooses to have a relationship, who is free to have a relationship or relationships, and this shouldn’t cost her life. Of course, the family can have different opinions, but this problem should be solved by talking the problem and trying to find the common ground, finding a solution that is accepted by everybody.

Today Turkish society and the Turkish Government are here to stop this and prevent it from happening. With the marches all around the Turkey, people are becoming more aware about femicides. People are donating money to help the ones who are in an abusive relationship because they don’t have enough money to live independent, people are speaking for the ones who can’t speak to help them find justice. Even though these actions are affective, there are some other solutions which can be done to prevent femicides to happen too. The next generation is our future too, so why not start changing it. In schools, it can be taught that women and men are equal, they are both only humans and no matter what the problem is violence is not the answer. Opening new shelters or safehouses especially in the little towns might also provide a place where women in danger can stay. As horrible as these news are, Turkey is hoping and taking actions to stop it.