Women Deserve Better by Zeynep Çakır
Do you know how many women in Turkey are murdered in a year?
Women in Turkey deserve better lives and rights. Women should have the right to live free from violence and discrimination, to be educated, to vote and to earn an equal wage. First of all, in our current world, women and men are seen neither as the same nor as equal. In an entirely equal world, a person’s gender would not determine their opportunities, freedom or value in society. Women’s rights are human rights. Sadly, this is still not the case in our society today.
People say that ‘’everybody should be equal’’ but does anybody truly do anything for that? Does anybody even mean it by saying that? We as a society, need to work towards that equality. Unfortunately, this inequality has been rooted into our society for a long time. Looking back at history, we see that women have been fighting for equality both in the workplace and in education. For example, women have been seen as and treated like slaves throughout history. People say that ‘’women’s duty is to clean the house, cook dinner, and look after the children.’’ This simple idea fits women into a harmful gender stereotype. This is one of the other challenges women face: patriarchy. In Turkey there is a perception that women are less qualified than men and therefore are not offered the same educational opportunities as men. Throughout history, women have also been discouraged from going to school and gaining an education. Empowered and educated women and girls contribute to their families, communities and countries.
From the moment women are born, the struggles start, and then continue from childhood through adulthood; only getting increasingly difficult. The difficulties that women face also depend on the environment in which they are, the education that they have and the conditions in their own country. This is entirely unjust as women cannot change where they are born or the situation they are born into. It is adamant for women to move past these difficulties and turn towards self-empowerment. It is through this self-empowerment that women can begin to improve their status in society.
Now is the time to change women’s situation because it is getting worse day by day. Even though there has been some progress with the number of girls going to school and there are fewer girls forced into early marriage over the last decades, there are still many challenges. Women should not be ignored in society. We should be able to participate in economy, politics and other jobs at the same rate that men do.
Women should be able to leave the house freely whenever they want and wear whatever they want. Nobody should have the ability to judge or criticize women based on either of those things. Unfortunately, it is a daily occurrence for women that people are judgmental or coercive about what they wear. Outside of the fear of others’ judgement, women can’t do those things because they have a bigger fear: they don’t want to be killed or attacked. Unfortunately, all around the world, we see news about the tragedies that occur against women. In some of the developing countries women are facing honor killings, religious marriages and child marriage.
Violence towards women presents itself in many different ways: domestic violence, sexual assault and harassment, abortion clinic violence and hate crimes motivated by gender. Unfortunately, the rate of femicide in Turkey is increasing day by day and even our current efforts to stop this situation are insufficient. In order to end this violence, we need to address the structural problems and change society’s attitude towards women. This shows that we should encourage, educate and raise our society in a way that cares more about equality and equal rights for women.
Myriad of women in Turkey experience physical or sexual violence. According to CNN Türk %41 of the women have been harressed and %93 who have been sexually assaulted. Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation. At least 155 countries have passed laws on domestic violence and 140 have legislation on sexual harassment in the workplace. (World Bank 2020) But there are challenges to enforce these laws and that of course limits women and girl’s access to safety and justice. There should be imposing deterrent penalties and laws by the government. Women’s who are attacked and abused by men should be protect by the government. Sadly, most of these incidents often go unpunished. Women’s right to live free from violence is upheld by international agreements but only 40 percent of women seek for help after suffering from violence and discrimination. Aside from government agencies, civil society organizations and other organizations try to find ways to support women and advocate for their rights. How can we do this? We should focus on early education, building respectful relationships and working with men and boys. If they do not do focus this, women’s situation will not change and will worsen. We have to keep raising awareness as much as we can through organizations and social media. If we get more in return, our efforts will not be in vain.
‘’Oh hero Turkish women, you can not drag on the ground, you are worthy to rise to the heavens on the shoulders.’’
M. Kemal ATATÜRK