MEDINE MAMEDOĞLU

Riha – Every day, women are killed, subjected to psychological and physical violence, harassment, and rape in Turkey. The attacks on women have increased after Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, a lifesaver for women. The impunity policies also cause an increase in crimes against women. Urfa is one of the cities of Turkey, where women are killed disguised as suicide. We talked about the increasing number of suicide cases in Urfa with Zeynep Dilek Polat, who is a lawyer and chairperson of the Urfa Yaşamevi Women’s Solidarity Association.

“Women are killed disguised as ‘suicide”

Stating that the main reason for the suspicious deaths of women is social pressure, Zeynep Dilek Polat said, “We know that the rate of femicides is high apart from suspicious deaths. The femicide cases are closed disguised as suicide claiming “Women had a psychological problem.” Many young girls are killed by their relatives after being raped by one of their relatives but the femicides disguised as suicides. Recently, a pregnant 18-year-old girl was found dead in her home. The women are killed in honor killings or claimed that they had ‘psychological problems'. Women are victimized by their families due to social pressure and stereotypes of their society. When a woman is killed, people say, ‘Who knows what she did’, ‘Was she killed for no reason?’. Our women and girls have been subjected to violence due to social pressure.”

“The impunity policies encourage perpetrators”

“In the state institutions, separate units should be opened for women who are subjected to violence,” said Zeynep Dilek Polat who underlined that women often cannot apply to any NGOs due to social pressure. Drawing attention to the impunity policies carried out in recent years, Zeynep said, “Women should be able to access more public services such as education and health. The state institutions should provide service in women’s mother language. Units should be opened to provide legal and psychological support to women. Turkey should implement the Istanbul Convention. Law No 6284 to Protect Family and Prevent Violence Against Women should be implemented. The impunity policies encourage perpetrators, the perpetrators should be punished. Every day, at least three or four women are killed by men.”