''Women's Rights in Turkey''...


(1)
Murder a fact of life for women in Turkey
Sunday, February 20, 2011
ISTANBUL - Daily News with Radikal

With nearly a thousand women murdered in Turkey in 2009 according to new data from the Justice Ministry, the country has witnessed a drastic increase since 66 women were murdered in 2002. ‘The reason behind violence against women is the imbalance of power in society,’ an activist says

Ayşe Paşalı (R), who was allegedly shot to death by her ex-husband, unsuccessfully sought official protection due to her husband's alleged physical abuse and threats to kill her. 
The number of women murdered in a year in Turkey shot up 1,400 percent between 2002 and 2009, according to data recently revealed by the country’s justice minister.
Some 66 women were murdered in Turkey in 2002, but the numbers have been steadily increasing since then, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said in response to a parliamentary question from Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, Van Deputy Fatma Kurtalan.
Eighty-three women were murdered in 2003, 164 in 2004, 317 in 2005, 663 in 2006, 1,011 in 2007, 806 in 2008 and 953 during the first seven months of 2009, the last date for which data was available, according to Ergin.
For Professor Aysel Çelikel, head of the Support for Contemporary Living Association, or ÇYDD, the high increase in the number of murdered women stems from gender inequality and Turkey’s increasingly conservative society.
“Women’s rights are going backward as much as conservatism is increasing in society,” Çelikel told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Sunday.
There is a direct correlation between the increase in the inequality between the genders and the increased level of violence men commit against women, she said.
“According to international reports, the reason behind violence against women is the imbalance of power and the inequality between men and women in society,” Çelikel said.
The only way to solve the problem of such violence is to ensure gender equality, Çelikel said.
“Changing the roles and attitudes of men and women within the family and society while also strengthening the role of women is the only solution in defeating violence against women,” the professor said.
“From 2002 to July 2009, a total of 12,678 cases were opened because of violence and murders,” Ergin told Parliament. “Some 15,564 people were tried in those cases, and 6,736 were sentenced. In those cases, 1,869 people were acquitted and 794 people were given parole.”


Nearly half of Turkish women experience violence

According to a government study titled “Research on Domestic Violence against Women in Turkey,” 41.9 percent of Turkish women are subjected to physical and sexual violence. Women at a “low-income level” are assaulted at a rate of 49.9 percent, while the number for higher-income women is still high, at 28.7 percent.
Some 55.8 percent of women who have no education or have not finished primary education are subjected to violence, while 27.2 percent of women with at least a high school diploma or higher are the victims, the study said.
Some 48.5 percent of women experience some form of violence but do not disclose their victimization, the study said, adding that women with a lower income (54.1 percent) were more likely to stay silent about being assaulted than women with more education (37.5 percent).
Some 23.4 percent of women have been forced by men to quit their jobs or have been prevented from working; in the lower-income category, this figure is 21.5 percent while it is 21.2 percent for those with higher incomes.
Altogether, 33.7 percent of women said they considered suicide as a solution to their problems. For those with less education, this number is 34.1 percent, while 37.6 of higher educated women have also considered taking their own lives.

   www.hurriyetdailynews. com




(2) 
Child victim gets blame in Mardin rape case 
Monday, February 21, 2011
ISTANBUL – Daily News with Milliyet
A court in Mardin has reduced the sentences of 26 men charged with rape to unlawful sex with a minor after it concluded the 13-year-old victim was willing and on account of “good conduct” on the part of the accused. The decision appeared to place some of the blame for the incidents on the victim herself.
While the men involved with the case – a group that included soldiers, civil servants, tradesmen and teachers – were sentenced to no more than four years and 10 months in jail each, the two women who sold the young victim, identified only as N.Ç., were given sentences of nine years.
The heavier punishments to the two women were justified by the Mardin 1st High Criminal Court as being due to “the virtueless life of the two women.”
In too many cases of violence against women, courts tend to give the minimum possible punishment to the accused males, according to Hülya Gülbahar, a lawyer and a member of the Women’s Platform for the Turkish Penal Code. “Accused women, however, are punished with the maximum, as it is shown in N.Ç.’s case,” Gülbahar told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Monday.
The lawyer said she hoped the high court of appeals would correct the Mardin court’s mistakes, label the offense as rape and make sure no such decisions are made again in the future.
In its reasoning for reducing the punishment for the men involved in the 2002 incidents, the court said N.Ç., aware of the act’s immorality, later solicited some of the men involved in the incidents for sex as a way to earn money.
“The court’s decision is unacceptable,” Gülbahar said, adding that Turkish judges continued to apply obsolete mentalities to cases despite the considerable improvements that have been made in the new Turkish Penal Code. “Unfortunately, the decision in N.Ç.’s case reintroduces the old attitudes to the justice system,” she said.
Thirteen men received sentences of four years and two months, reduced from five years, for having sexual relations with a child younger than 15 years old. Eleven more who were sentenced to five years each had their penalty reduced to four years and 10 months.
One man who was below the age of 18 at the time of the crime received a sentence of three years and two months, while another who was found guilty only of attempting to have sexual relations was sentenced to one year and four months in jail.
Under Article 414 of the old Turkish Penal Code, men found guilty of raping girls under the age of 15 should be sentenced to no less than five years; if any violence or threat is involved, the punishment should be no less than 10 years.
The suspects’ detaining of N.Ç. was determined to have been “detainment through will instead of detainment by force,” another factor that contributed to the reduced sentences.
In its decision, the Mardin court recalled a comment by the Forensic Medicine Institute that “N.Ç. could have stood against these incidents.” The decision also said the victim later “contacted suspects E. and T. of her own will in order to earn money [for sex] and was involved in a relations with other suspects related to these men.”
The court’s decision, and the way it was made, showed that it favored the accused, Gülbahar said.“The [court’s] refusal of the complainant’s health report, which proved the physical and psychological harm she has undergone, is an arbitrary decision that violates penal code provisions,” the lawyer said. “The judges should have decided on a much stricter punishment for the accused, for deterrent purposes.”
Previously, N.Ç. had written a letter to then-Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek when she learned that all the suspects had been released pending trial. “What would do you if it was your daughter and not me?” she wrote in the letter.