Femicide and the Disappearance of Women’s Rights

Femicide has become a terrorism in Turkey.

December 17, 2022 by Beyza Avci 


Women are dying every day in Turkey. Women are killed with guns, knives, burning, etc. At home, at work, at school, on the street… There is a massacre of women in Turkey. Women are cut off from their lives and dreams with a momentary anger of men, mostly from their close circle. Femicide and male violence have now become a form of terrorism in Turkey.

Almost every day, we come across a murder of a woman in the news. Women are killed by men, mostly from their close circles (father, spouse, son, relative, etc.). Most of the time, murderers are released, and murderers, rapists, and aggressors walk among us on the street: they eat at our next table, they sit next to us on the bus, and thus the massacre of women is justified.

As if not applying the current rules of law was not enough, the Istanbul Convention* was terminated on 20 March 2021 for Turkey. In this geography, where unlawfulness is increasing and unenforced laws encourage the murderers, the massacre of women is starting to be legally legitimized, and the laws protecting women are being repealed.

The problems brought by the economic crisis and the post-pandemic are also extra destructive for women. Women whose economic freedom is restricted and who are exposed to domestic labor exploitation also have to struggle with violence. At home, on the street, at work, etc. women are left defenseless in a circle of violence, their legal rights are taken away and left to the justice of the male-dominated state.

anitsayac.com, a digital monument that keeps track of the women murdered in Turkey since 2008, reveals the increase in the number of murdered women in Turkey every year. According to the anitsayac.com data, every year in Turkey, regardless of language, religion or race, hundreds of women are murdered by men. In 2022, only recorded, there are 358 murders of women

There is a massacre of women in Turkey.

*Istanbul Convention: The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is a human rights treaty of the Council of Europe against violence against women and domestic violence which was opened for signature on 11 May 2011, in Istanbul, Turkey. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_Convention)

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This post was previously published on medium.com.