Hülya and Müslüm...

* Photo: magicalquote

Click to read the article in Turkish

Hülya used to live in Güngören, İstanbul. She got married to Kadir. When they were married for three days, Kadir battered Hülya. His systematic sexual and physical torture started on that day.

Hülya could not stand what she went through. She filed a criminal complaint to be protected from male violence. Kadir was given a restraining order for six months. He did not abide by the order. He kept on living in the same house with Hülya and inflicting violence on her.

Hülya went to the Security Directorate again, she filed another criminal complaint. However, nothing changed. The authorities that she appealed to for protection from male violence fell into silence. As for the male violence at home, it went on as systematically as before.

But, this time, Hülya changed her method and wanted to file for a divorce. She went to the petitioner right across the Bakırköy Courthouse and had a petition written. When she wanted to submit the petition, the officer at the courthouse told her that she had to pay a fee of over 400 lira. Hülya had to give up because she did not have that much money. Her meagre wage that she could earn as a dishwasher was seized by Kadir.

Kadir inflicted violence on Hülya again in an August evening. She tried to escape, but the door was locked. When he started strangling her, Hülya reached out for a knife and waved it towards Kadir. His arm got scratched.

Self-defense

Meanwhile, Kadir kept on strangling Hülya. Hülya had asthma, she was short of breath. She was about to die. She waved the knife again, with a last effort. First, the hands around her neck slowly opened, then Kadir fell down.

Hülya called out to Kadir, but it was to no avail, she could not get any response. She called an ambulance and the police. She learned at the police station that she killed Kadir. She got arrested.

The indictment issued by the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor's Office demanded that Hülya be sentenced to 18 to 24 years in prison on charge of "wilful killing of one's spouse by unjust provocation."

Hülya had four hearings at the 20th Heavy Penal Court at Bakırköy Courthouse. She recounted what she went through during all these hearings, sobbing under the patronizing look in the eyes of the court board.

Hülya could not read or write, either. That is why, she got really nervous and could not express herself clearly. Her lawyer Meriç Eyüboğlu was supporting her. Eyüboğlu stated the following in the first hearing on February 11, 2020:

"If the restraining order issued as per the İstanbul Convention and the Law 6284 on the Protection of Family and the Prevention of Violence against Women had been put into effect, Hülya would not be at this court now and his husband would be alive.

"But she used her right of self-defense and killed her husband. That is why, she is here now. This lawsuit is a lawsuit about a person who defended herself because her access to justice had been hindered."

All four hearings went on like that. Neither Hülya nor her lawyers could explain the inequality between women and men or the fact that Hülya was forced to kill Kadir to protect herself.

Only the prosecutor of the court indicated that the limits of self-defense were not exceeded and demanded Hülya's release as there were no grounds for her penalization. However, the court board was not of the same opinion. Hülya has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Unable to benefit from the recently enacted Law on Criminal Enforcement, Hülya is now in Bakırköy Women's Prison.

Hülya Halaçkay is still waiting for women's solidarity and support.

And Müslüm...

Living in Antep, Müslüm was inflicting systematic violence on his wife Rukiye and their three children. Last year, he stabbed Rukiye. She is one of the women who could escape from male violence "without dying."

Around a year had passed since then. Released from prison, Müslüm went to the house of Rukiye, with whom he longer lived together. He wanted to take their three children, a row ensued. Müslüm used violence on children, he beat his nine-year-old daughter Ceylan to death.

Hülya and Müslüm... And it is our sexist state - judiciary that leads to the inequality between women and men in our country.

While it was first alleged that Müslüm was released from prison as per the newly enacted law on criminal enforcement, in a statement released by the Gaziantep Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, it has been announced that he was released on November 4, 2019.

Judiciary as the accomplice of manhood

Lawyers and academics have produced quite clear knowledge on male - sexist judicial system. Explaining and proving how the judiciary and courts cooperate with manhood, Assoc. Prof. Eylem Ümit-Atılgan's "Sentence Reduction for Unjust Provocation is a Reduction for Manhood" is one of the best examples of that. I am now giving the floor to Ümit-Atılgan:

"They say that court minutes do not sweat. But, I think, they do sweat. They have tears as well as blood. You see all these at the prosecutor's office when you go there for feminicides; the defense of manhood that you do not encounter in depositions, you see them in court minutes.

"Referring to women who have died and are not in a position to defend themselves, male perpetrators say that the women told them, 'And you call yourself a man? Come on, if you are a man...'

"Or, having killed a person in gender transition process, a perpetrator says, 'She offered me sexual intercourse, she turned out to be a trans and I killed her.' It is actually a transphobic murder.

"What we see in the court minutes after that is that the moment the defense of manhood is added to the minutes, a different language emerges between judges and perpetrators."

***

'Open Door' Warning by KADAV

I attended the online meetings that were held as part of "Open Door" project by the Prison Studies team of the Women's Solidarity Foundation (KADAV).

Sharing information about the project, its coordinator Buse Eröz said that the women and LGBTI+s release from prison needed support.

Eröz reminded that LGBTI+s convicted of petty crimes were released as well and called on the released women and LGBTI+s to apply to the KADAV.

Click here for access to KADAV (in Turkish)

Address: Fevzi Çakmak Mah. Halkalı Cad. No:195/A D:11-12 Küçükçekmece/İstanbul
Phone: 0090 (212) 251 58 50

Image on the top

Let me put it as briefly as possible: A world where several global problems and ecological destruction are believed to be caused by women... Imagine a dystopia where women are denied their all rights and, what is worse, a very few number of them who still have the "capability to reproduce" are forced to live as slaves so that these problems can be solved.

The image on the top is from this dystopia, from the series "Handmaid's Tale", which I believe that touches us all with the resistance of women.

The series is, in fact, an adaptation from Canadian writer Margaret Atwood's book "Handmaid's Tale."

The expression on the face of Offred, a female character from the series, and what she says when the house and authority of the male "commander" who tortured Offred are being destroyed remind us of the women subjected to male violence inside their homes, especially of Hülya.

Wish you a new week without violence...

(EMK/SD)