Too Many Problems by Alper Yıldız

In the magazine published by National Geographic on October 15, 2019, Turkey is 114th out of  167 countries in the list of the best countries to be a woman. The difficulties of Turkish women,  who were oppressed under a patriarchal system, are really thought-provoking. Unfortunately, in  Turkey, there is a role that society has assigned to women, and this is where the problem begins.  If women do not fit the role that society has assigned to them, problems begin to erupt and they  are constantly battered, from verbal violence to physical violence. It is society that determines  the role of women.  

The woman was constantly given the role of wife and housewife, told that her sole purpose was  to serve her man. Unfortunately, all this has permeated the roots of Turkish society, and the  biggest evidence of this is our proverbs and idioms: (He who does not beat his daughter beats  his knee, A woman's place is with her husband...) Words like this normalize violence and murder  against women. Between 2008 and 2019, 3.185 women were killed in Turkey. One of the main  reasons for murderers who want to normalize their crimes is "honor cleansing". The concept of  honor in Turkey is mostly misunderstood and internalized as if it were only a woman's problem.  Again, unfortunately, there is an understanding that if a woman has never been with anyone  before, does not dress openly, in other words, if she fits the role that society has given her, she  is honorable. This perception causes women to constantly feel pressure and lead an  uncomfortable life. In addition to these, there are still serious problems such as the deprivation  of education of girls, especially in rural areas, and child marriage. Child marriage and being  deprived of education are seriously related to each other. The fact that girls are raised as a  housewife from a very young age, deprived of education at a young age and then married without  being asked for their opinion, is an indication that women in Turkey have begun to suffer these  difficulties from a very young age.  

The founder of our country, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, liberated the Turkish women to an  incredible extent with the reforms he carried out and gave a strong struggle against the bigoted  mentality of the society that could not break away from the past. Even though a great deal of  success was achieved in the end, the fact that Turkish women still face such problems today  reveals that a part of Turkish society still has an unbreakable bond with the past in their  subconscious. 

In order to prevent all these problems, first of all, parents should be educated about gender  equality, then children should be raised with this awareness and more deterrent punishments should be given to crimes such as violence and rape against women. l believe that all these  problems will be solved if future generations are raised with this awareness. "Oh heroic Turkish woman, you are not worthy to be dragged on the ground, but to rise to the  sky on your shoulders." -Mustafa Kemal Atatürk