DİLEK GÜL

Istanbul – The rate of violence against women is soaring in Turkey day by day. Women support women, who are subjected to any form of violence. Every day, we watch femicide cases and how perpetrators of violence are released from prison by the prosecutors and courts. While the cases of violence against women are increasing, women seek help on social media platforms when they are subjected to gender-based violence.

After each femicide, people begin to discuss femicides and react to the increasing femicide cases in the country but no step has been taken to end femicides.

Why aren’t women’s voices heard?

The footage of Emine Bulut shouting “I don’t want to die,” before she was killed couldn’t stop femicides despite it sparked anger in the country. No one heard the voice of 30-year-old Tuğba Anlak, who was shot in the head in Istanbul’s Arnavutköy neighborhood. She was killed in front of her six-year-old daughter. We already forget 22-year-old Fatma Erdoğan, who was killed by her husband for “asking for a divorce”. She had called the police to ask for help 15 minutes before she was killed. The voices of women asking for help or support haven’t been heard in Turkey.

“Because life is being tabloidized”

Sociologist Feryal Saygılıgil says the main reason lies behind the unresponsiveness against male violence is “tradition”.

“We saw how many people watched the video showing Emine Bulut was killed. Instead of preventing the femicide, people just watched. There are many reasons lie behind this. Firstly, it was a family issue. People believe that they cannot get into family issues. This is a rooted tradition. Another reason is fear. We also see that life is being tabloidized in society. Instead of preventing the incident, people shoot video,” said Feryal Saygılıgil.

“Sincerity in social media should be questioned”

Although Feryal Saygılıgil thinks social media takes women away from the streets, she insists on its importance in life. “But sincerity in social media should be questioned,” she added.

“You can make your voice heard more in social media so people don’t take to the streets to make their voice heard. But people show their reaction for a while, and then they forget everything in a short time. For this reason, the sincerity of social media should be questioned. Taking videos instead of helping Emine Bulut shows how social media has power,” Feryal Saygılıgil told us.

“We are all victims of this system”

“The unresponsiveness against femicides is terrible,” Feryal Saygılıgil said, “Women are killed, murdered. The worst thing is that women are subjected to all kinds of violence in public spaces now. Femicides become ordinary in public spaces. We may be from different classes and have different colors but we are oppressed in the same way. We should know that we are all victims of this system.”

 “I don’t want to hear “but” after each femicide anymore. We should take to the streets. We should be everywhere. We should teach gender identity in our elementary schools to end femicides, ” Feryal Saygılıgil said.

Who is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Feryal Saygılıgil?

She wrote her doctoral thesis on “Serbest Bölgelerde Kadın Emeği (Women's Labor in Free Zones) at the Department of Sociology at Mimar Sinan University. Together with Güliz Sağlam, she shot the documentaries titled, “We were like a bird in a cage” (Women in Desa Resistance) in 2009, “Bölge (area or zone)” in 2010, and “Women on Strike” in 2010. She is a member of the editorial board of Duvar Magazine. She was a lecturer at Istanbul Arel University, Department of Sociology. She also lectured at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. She is one of the Academics for Peace, who signed the declaration entitled “We will not be a party to this crime.”