Men Kill 22 Women in August

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According to bianet’s review of reports from local and international newspapers, news websites and agencies, in August men killed 22 women, raped three, assaulted 36, harassed 8, and sexually assaulted 14 female children.

Attacks against trans women increased in August, including the rape and killing of Hande Kader by unknown assailants in Istanbul. One woman committed suicide in Izmir. In Mersin and Ankara, three trans women were beaten with iron batons.

23%t of the women were killed because they wanted to divorce or separate, or because they refused offers to reconcile with their partners. 17% were exposed to violence and seriously injured for the same reason. Three women were seriously injured by their husbands because they wanted their daughters to get divorces.

With the closure of schools, sexual assault against female children decreased. 21% of the assaults occurred in the girls’ own homes, whilst 21% also took place in other houses to which they were taken.

In the first eight months of 2016 men have killed at least 175 women, raped 55, assaulted 232, harassed 88, and sexually assaulted 311 female children.

Murder

In August men killed 22 one women, two men and one child.

Besides these 22 murders, the perpetrators in the killing of five women and one other suspicious death have not been identified. Three women who were exposed to systematic violence or forcibly married took their own lives, whilst one 44-year-old woman who had been forcibly married as a child attempted to commit suicide because she had been subjected to violence from her children and husband.

23% of the women were killed either because they wanted to divorce or separate or because they refused offers of reconciliation. 9% of the murders took place despite judgments to provide protective measures.

One man killed his wife after being released from prison following divorce proceedings.

Another man who had killed his wife left the courthouse laughing. Before the murder it had been understood that the couple had been reconciled by the neighbourhood mukhtar.

Among the reasons given for the murders were women’s resistance to rape, and refusal to show telephone messages or share telephone passwords.

18% of the murders reported in the media were committed in the street.

In 50% of the cases the women were killed by their husbands. One was killed by her father, two by the husbands of their daughters who were seeking divorces, one by her ex-husband, three by their boyfriends, 11 by their husbands, one by her son, one by her lover, one by her friend, and one by a man she did not know.

41% of the murders were committed with firearms. Four women were killed with pistols, five with rifles, and seven with knives, whilst one was suffocated, two had their throats cut, one was tortured, and another bludgeoned to death.

One man drove off a cliff with his partner in the car.

Three of the killers killed themselves after the murders.

The provinces in which the murders occurred were as follows: Antalya (3), Antep (1), Batman (1), Bitlis (1), Çorum (1), Denizli (1), Diyarbakır (1), Düzce (2), Eskişehir (1), Karaman (1), Kayseri (1), Konya (4), Manisa (2), Muğla (1) and Trabzon (1).

Rape

Three cases of rape were reported in the media in August. One of the victims was disabled.

One of the rapists was a relative of his victim, another had met his through social media, and another was a security guard at a tented settlement.

One of the rapists was arrested and one was killed by the woman he raped, but the one working as a “security guard” is continuing to work in the settlement where the rape was committed.

The rape cases occurred in Bursa, Izmir and Urfa.

Meanwhile, in Samsun met forced five women into sex work.

Harassment

Eight cases of harassment were reported by the media in August.

Almost all of the molesters did not know their victims. Among the cases, 37.5% occurred on buses, whilst a further 37.5% occurred on the street.

One of the molesters was a hospital technician, another a plumber, and another the neighbour of the woman he abused, whilst the others did not know their victims.

Two of the men physically molested their victims, whilst one both exposed himself and molested his victim. The hospital technical masturbated in front of his victim whilst she was under anesthetic for an operation.

Tesisatçılık yapan bir erkek, bakım yaptığı binada oturan ve aylardır ısrarlı bir şekilde takip ettiği bir kadını evine giderek taciz etti.

Only one of the molesters has been arrested.

The provinces in which the harassment took place were as follows: Aydın (2), Edirne (1), İstanbul (2), İzmir (1), Kütahya (1) and Urfa (1).

Child abuse

Fourteen cases of child abuse against female children were reported by the media in August.

One of the victims was disabled, and another was a Syrian refugee.

According to the reports, only seven of the perpetrators have been arrested, and the man who sexually abused the disabled girl has been released under judicial control.

Three of the abuse cases took place in the girls’ own homes, three in houses to which they were taken, one in a grocery shop, one at a political party youth camp, one in a hotel where the girl’s family was staying on holiday, one at the democracy watches that followed the July 15 coup attempt, and one via telephone.

One of the perpetrators was the employer of the victim’s mother, one a grocer, one a youth camp worker, three neighbours, one a mukhtar, one the victim’s stepfather, and five were men whom the girls did not know. In one case information was not available about the extent to which the girl knew her attacker.

The abusers were between the ages of 18 and 69, and their victims between 9 months and 17 years old.

The cases of sexual abuse against children occurred in the following provinces: Ankara (1), Antalya (2), Antep (1), Aydın (2), Bitlis (1), Denizli (1), Hatay (1), Mersin (2), Samsun (1), Tekirdağ (1), and Zonguldak (1).

Violence and injury

Men assaulted and injured 39 women in August.

64% of the cases of violent assault took place in ways that could lead to death.

11% took place despite judgements to introduce protection measures. One man escaped from prison and tried to kill his wife.

17% of the women were assaulted because they wanted to separate or divorce. Three women were seriously injured by their husbands because they wanted their daughters to seek divorces. One young woman was seriously injured by her husband because her mother had encouraged a divorce.

17%t of the cases of violence and injury occurred on the street.

Distribution by regions

In August the media reported a total of 88 cases of violence, murder, attempted murder, abuse, sexual harassment, rape and injury committed by men against women.

Of these, 19% occurred in the Black Sea region, 19% in the Aegean, 17% in the Mediterranean, 17% in inner Anatolia, 16% in Marmara, 9% in southeastern Anatolia, and 2% in Eastern Anatolia. (ÇT/PS)