Domestic Violence against Women in Turkey

"Challenge Accepted".

This isn’t just about women supporting women, it is understanding the existence of violent behavioural patterns around the world, and particularly in Turkey, which result in such gender specific brutality.

It is a crime that should offend every single person that has a mother, sister, daughter, wife and in fact, anyone who has a loved one that is a female.

We often dismiss these issues because it hasn’t happened to our loved ones, but please, if you do one thing today, ask yourself how you would feel if you lost a significant women in your life due to the uncontrolled violence inflicted on them by a male, particularly one she has trusted to protect her and has instead taken her away from you.

These women have not only lost their life, they have lost their right to be a mother, their parents have lost their right to raise a daughter. In its entirety, this is a RIGHT and not a privilege that is subject to the violence inflicted on them by a man.

In 2019 alone 474 women were murdered in Turkey, mostly by partners and relatives, the highest rate in a decade. In 2020, and in consideration of the impact of Covid-19 lock downs, this number is expected to have doubled.

The Turkish government is now attempting  to abolish the Istanbul Convention, a human rights treaty that was ratified in 2012 to protect women against domestic violence, forced marriage and female genital mutation. 

These women cannot even rely on the government they live under for basic justice, whose judicial system is notorious in handing down reduced sentences for men who kill their partner as a result of domestic violence, if a sentence at all.

As a result, I have created this page to support the Mor Çati Kadin Vakfi (Womens Shelter) in Turkey, a non-governmental organisation established in 1990, who aim to combat violence against women by providing shelter to those who have nowhere to go but require refuge as a result of domestic violence. The organisation also carries out social work to empower women and are heavily involved in making recommendations to policy makers regarding laws and conventions.

Any contributions made, big or small, are significant enough to save a female life that may have been lost or endangered as a result of domestic violence.