Life is just like a full of never-ending helical that are always connected. People face tons of problems in their lives. Women and girls overcome more major problems compared to males. Women and girls in my country are facing stereotypical and limiting beliefs that may end up with violence towards them which is the biggest issue.
Read MoreSurviving. Not living, simply giving a fight to stay alive. Fear, fearing for your life. Being frightened on the train, on the bus, on the subway, in the street, even in your own home. Going out of your way to not be the last person left in the bus, getting off two stops early just so you won’t be alone with the driver. Not wearing skirts, tight jeans, crop tops or short sleeved t-shirts; cleavage not even being a question. Fastening your pace as the sun goes down and you are not yet home. Walking the long way home because the shorter one is always quiet and deserted. Never, ever letting your guard down in front of anyone; learning to trust no one, being scared to leave your relationship because of that uneasy feeling in your stomach and always being extra cautious when entering a new one, just in case he turns out to be a psychopath. As much as this story sounds like a nightmare, it actually is very real. It is the life of an average woman in Turkey.
Read MoreIn this article, I would like to address one of the biggest problems faced by women and girls in our country, “Violence Against Women and Femicide”. In this article, the anthropological and sociological development of the phenomenon of honour as a form of symbolic violence normalizing the sexual control of women, and honour killings as a form of direct violence against women in the context of Turkey are examined.
Read More280 women were murdered in 2021 in Turkey by men and 217 deaths were found suspicious, according to the report of We Will Stop Femicides Platform.1 Every time we look at the news, we learn that another woman was murdered that day. Although we get frustrated, we don’t get shocked. The thought of us getting used to femicides is horrifying. How can a woman feel safe walking home alone at night, in an environment like this?
Read More“Look sweetheart, it’s not that we don’t trust you or that you did something wrong, but we can’t just let you go out on your own... Well, with your brother it’s different...” These were the exact words many young women across Turkey hear. Many are told that they should be careful when they go out on their own, or not permitted to go out at all. Unfortunately, this isn’t a simple familial thing, rather a systematic one. And just like all systematic issues, it can’t be solved with the snap of a finger and most of the time, the ordinary Turkish women has to be the one who pays the price.
Read MoreIt’s dark outside, I am on my way home from school. With every step, the excruciating adrenaline intensifies. My hand hurts from the tight grip I clutch my phone in, while trying to call my mom to prove that she is waiting for me. Even if she does not pick up the phone, I can still act a phone call and convince the furtive man following me to not to hurt me, since it would be tracked. As I wait for her to pick up the phone, the sound of steps gets closer and the dark sky lets me down by covering everything around and leaving me with paranoia. Is it just me or the news that I’m exposed to on a daily basis? Luckily, she picks up the phone. “Hi mom. Yes, I see you. I’m coming.” I start running to the random woman on the street. No, she is not my mom, but it helped the duplicitous man to swerve to another street.
Read MoreStaying alive as a female in Turkey in itself is the biggest challenge because of the grossly normalized patriarchal societal norms and expectations. In Turkey, by default, women are seen as mindless unimportant objects. As far as men are concerned, they can just act as they please, and women will simply have to obey their decisions. Women have to overcome invisible yet enormous barriers just to be able to get to the same level as men.
Read MoreIf George Orwell lived in this day and age, he might have described the situation in my country like this: “All Turkish people are equal, but men are more equal than women.” Regardless of age, the principal challenges girls and women in Turkey face are fundamental human rights: to live, to get an education, to start a family of their choice, and to make a living through a profession.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreThe biggest challenge facing women and girls in Turkey is the ignorance and the inaction on violence. According to the "We Will Stop Femicide Platform” the number of femicides grew exponentially year by year. From 2010 to 2019, the number of femicides increased more than twice, from 180 to 474. Something almost all of these murders had in common was that the victims asked for help. Most of them were predictable and entirely preventable, but they occurred nevertheless because no one they reached out to took initiative and helped them. Everyone who had a chance to intervene but instead chose to ignore have a collective responsiblity in these murders.
Read MoreWomen; human kind that has ability to give birth to another human. Women are precious like a diamond. They are first; like a coal they are dark and hidden, they need to undergo a process. That process takes time and effort. Lots of pressure, wind that tries to blow down, unwanted thoughts and discourse that wants to demolish. But after this much of an overwhelming incident, women shine up over greedy eyes of audience which is society.
Read MoreThe women can beautify everything they touch but, are subjected to violence and abuse in many cities throughout Turkey - perhaps under separate roofs, but all for the same horrible reasons. At the center of this violence lies the understanding of patriarchal, male-controlled society. It places women in an inferior position in society. In the shadow of the principles imposed by this belief, more and more women and girls in Turkey are exposed to brutality and even become victims of femicide. The notion of "what happens at home must stay at home" is forced upon young girls, and unfortunately, they grow up to be women believing that they should stay silent against aggression. In Turkey, the biggest challenge facing women and girls is this patriarchal system and the belief that any problem at home needs to stay at home and must not be shared with the outside world.
Read MoreIs it difficult to be a woman? Most people would answer this question with a big "Yes". But unfortunately it is much more difficult to be a woman in an underdeveloped country such as Turkey.
Read MoreThe literal meaning of fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm. But in my country, fear means being born as a woman. This fear begins when the doctor says, “Congratulations, you will have a daughter ". So the reason for fear is not being a woman. The main reason is there is a point of view against women, and the possibility of changing this point of view is very low. Well, is it reasonable to put women in a mould and expect them to take shape in that mould?
Read More“Humankind is made up of two sexes, women and men. Is it possible that a mass is improved by the improvement of only one part and the other part is ignored? Is it possible that if half of a mass is tied to earth with chains and the other half can soar into skies?” ―M.K. Atatürk
Read MoreMargaret Atwood, a feminist author, once said “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” Turkey gave women the right to vote in 1934, before most world countries. In adverse, women killings, rape and violence against women has been more common than most world countries. According to research and statistics, women killings in Turkey have increased by approximately %300 in the past 13 years. %48.4 of these women were killed by their husband, which is known as “intimate femicide”. Femicides may be common in Turkey, but what are the reasons and the source of it?
Read MoreImagine that you have to marry because all you desire in life is going to university. You’re the biggest child of five, dearth of mother, and of a father who is mentally absent. You’re caring, yet you also want to have a chance in life, enough to be independent of the shackles that enroot you at home. So you make the biggest bid of your life and you marry a man who assures you education in exchange for being a loyal “wife.” This is one of the instances, an innocuous one, of a girl from Turkey’s rural skirts, who exchanges her life for illusory escapades, one that bears beatings, insults, and invisible scars.
Read MoreFrançoise Barré-Sinoussi of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, 2008 Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine and Physiology for her identification of HIV was asked in an interview for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings(1) website about the biggest barriers she faced in becoming a leading female scientist. Instead of material obstacles like lack of funding or equipment, Barré-Sinoussi gave a thought-provoking response.
“The biggest obstacle was certain people – men, of course – who discouraged me, saying [science] wasn’t a good career for women. This male-dominated atmosphere pushed me even more to persevere and succeed.” (2)
Read MoreThe human biology is excellent. Even though we have similarities, each person is different. The two genders, which we call men and women, are full of differences. Men and women are not equal, but any of these different traits in men or women don’t make the other sex superior to the other one. These differences in men and women complement of each other. Unfortunately, because of the physical differences, some people have placed the patriarchal system in our culture by making the man seem superior. The effects of this patriarchal mindset are still visible nowadays. The fact that there are girls who are married at the age of 15 – 16 and who are not sent to school, especially at the east side of the Turkey shows the value given to women very clearly. Of course, not only that, even women living in İstanbul, which we can call the most modern and developed city in Turkey, cannot walk on streets comfortably at night because of the fear of being harassed by men. Also, there are women who are despised in their business environment only because of their gender. Was Turkey which still has problems owing to gender discrimination, always like this? When we go back to the old times, when we look at the ancient Turkish civilizations, did they also have a patriarchal mindset?
Read MoreTurkey is one of the developing economies of the world, where there is still a big social and cultural gap between the people living in the east and the west. There is a certain heritage that is carried from one generation to the other. The group that suffers from this heritage is the Turkish women , who face all sorts of suppression. Among the many challenges that women face in Turkey, child marriages and honor killings are the most common.
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