What Did the Ministry of Interior Do to Protect Women from Male Violence?

* Photo: Yağmur Karagöz - bianet / November 25, 2019

Click to read the article in Turkish

Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu attended a YouTube program last week. Speaking about male violence there, he could apparently utter the following remarks with a peace of mind:

"There used to be feminicides in Turkey. When we compare the 60-day period before and after coronavirus broke out, we see that domestic violence has declined. They say, 'Violence at home has increased.' No, it has dropped by 12 percent. Feminicides have decreased by 38 percent."

In Turkey, where women take to the streets to say "We want to live" and make calls over calls on social media to be protected from male violence, the Ministry of Interior can release a statement and say that "male violence has declined" in the country amid COVID-19 pandemic

CLICK - bianet Male Violence Monitoring Reports

Belive me, I say this in the most sincerest terms possible: I really wish that what Minister Soylu says is correct. But, unfortunately, the women who lost their lives as a result of male violence during pandemic and what Minister Soylu says about the issue just do not overlap.

Only last week, men killed Selma Tetik in the capital city of Ankara, Zeynep Şenpınar in Muğla, Gülnur Kocabaş in Manisa, Rukiye Çerman in Rize and Nurcan Polat in Diyarbakır.

A further detail needs to be shared here about Rize province: Before the pandemic broke out, no woman lost their lives there as a result of male violence, as far as bianet male violence monitoring reports could document. However, in the course of the pandemic since early March 2020, at least three women* were killed by men in Rize.

In other words, even in Rize, where no feminicides were reported before the pandemic, men killed at least three women in this period. If these women had been killed inside their homes, we would not know about them now. While one woman was killed in a public institution, at a teacher's house, two women were killed on the street, before the eyes of everyone.

The life of a single woman is precious

In fact, with this recent statement of his, Minister Soylu has confessed that there is a problem of male violence in this country. Adding the amount of male violence to the problem, Süleyman Soylu has argued that the murders of women by men have "declined" in the recent period.

In announcing the number of women killed by men in our monthly and annual reports, what we intend to do is also to show that male violence is systematic. In other words, the life of a single woman is as precious as the lives of 20 women. What is precious is not "numbers", but "lives."

I wish that Soylu had not only talked about the alleged decline in violence, but also mentioned what was done to protect women. After saying that "violence has declined," I wish he had also said:

"We are now working to ensure that the spirit of İstanbul Convention is internalized by our all institutions. There will now remain no judges who do not know the provisions of the Convention.

"All articles of the Law no. 6284 on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women will be abided by. A perspective of gender equality will be adopted in education, as foreseen by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Convention.

"Removed from the website of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), the document of gender perspective will be uploaded to the website again. The moment women appeal to the law enforcement and say that they are subjected to violence, they will be protected immediately..."

He did not say any of this.

Let's assume that what Minister said about violence is correct, let's assume that violence has indeed declined. Then, what did your Ministry do to protect the lives of the killed women, whom you have recorded as "declined"?

To name a few... Did you, for instance, consult with the women's organizations working in this field and develop an action plan accordingly?

Did you prevent the suspension of the Law no. 6284, which enables the issuance of a restraining order for men so that women can be protected? Or did you say, 'Let the women be subjected to violence; the man who inflicts violence has nowhere to go amid pandemic, will he be away from home'?"

According to the reports released by the Purple Roof Women's Shelter Foundation, women cannot access shelters or receive support when they appeal to the law enforcement because they are subjected to violence.

Let's emphasize this, too: Yes, according to bianet male violence monitoring reports, male violence seems to "have declined" proportionally.

However, we cannot conclude that male violence has indeed declined, because we know that the violence faced by women is not reported in the press as much as before as the women have been confined to their homes with men and the priorities of the media have changed.

So, let's go back to the square one.

The Ministry of Interior alleges that male violence has declined in comparison with the previous year and the pre-pandemic period.

Then, here is the question: What did you do to protect women from male violence?

I wish a new week without violence to us all... (EMK/SD)

* The women killed by men in Rize during pandemic: Savaş D. killed Gamze P. in Fındıklı district on April 16; Hasan Ç. killed Rukiye Ç. in Çayeli district on May 30; Ali Rıza H. killed Hatice K. in central Rize on March 20.