Women take to streets in İstanbul for İstanbul Convention

* Photos: Ferid Demirel / bianet

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Women protested Turkey's withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention in İstanbul's Üsküdar district yesterday (March 25).

Underlining the importance of the Convention for women and LGBTI+s, women reiterated their determination to struggle for the Convention.

With a Presidential decision dated March 19, 2021 and issued by President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has withdrawn from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence - İstanbul Convention.

Accordingly, women in Üsküdar said, "The words of a group of men, the decision of the one man is null and void in the eyes of women."

'Condemning women to violence'

Reading out the press statement on behalf of women, Ecem Öksüz said, "The fact that the İstanbul Convention, which passed the Parliament in 2011, was a subject of debate for some time and that its termination was declared in an unlawful manner at the night of March 20, 2021 has no meaning other than condemning women to violence."

Öksüz indicated that "women have been forced to wage a struggle to walk on the streets without fear, to lead their lives without being harassed or raped, to be present in the public space and to give their own decisions, so for their fundamental human rights."

Underlining the importance of the İstanbul Convention as well as the Law no. 6284 on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence against Women within this context, Ecem Öksüz said that both the Convention and the Law no. 6284 are "life saviors" for women.

"Withdrawing from the Convention means disregarding the most fundamental rights and life safety of women," protested Öksüz.

'So that LGBTI+s will not get killed...'

Further in the statement, Ecem Öksüz raised concerns about the targeting of LGBTI+s in smear campaigns against the İstanbul Convention.

"In smear campaigns against the İstanbul Convention, it is emphasized that it incents being an LGBTI+ and LGBTI+s are openly targeted. While there is no article about being an LGBTI+ or incenting it in the Convention's articles, it is emphasized that no one shall be subjected to disrimination or violence over their sexual orientation and gender identity.

"This convention also exists so that other LGBTI+s such as Hande Kader, massacred by being burned, and Ahmet Yıldız, massacred by his father because he was homosexual, will not fall victim to hate murders.

"If the Convention was implemented and the voices of trans women were heard, Buse Şeker, Didem Akçay and several others like them would be alive today. These acts of targeting committed through the Convention are openly hate crimes," noted her statement.

'They are struggling for their dominance'

The statement of women also referred to the allegations about the İstanbul Convention's allegedly detrimental effects on "family structure and social values" in Turkey. Noting that the ones voicing such arguments "defend an order of society and family where women are children and subjected to all types of violence," the statement indicated:

"They are struggling to not lose their dominance over women. Women are subjected to violence, they are massacred in family. Children are subjected to violence and sexual abuse in family.

'That is why the Convention exists'

"İstanbul Convention stands up against this very mindset. İstanbul Convention was put into effect not to destroy families, but to ensure that the perpetrators of violence and murders in families where women and children are subjected to violence and massacred could be penalized.

"This Convention protects the right to life of all women, veiled/unveiled, believer/non-believer, married/single, and that of LGBTI+s."

'One man's decision is null and void'

Denouncing the religious references used against the Convention as well, women concluded their statement briefly as follows:

"Withdrawing from a convention that prevents violence against women, forms mechanisms of support that will empower women and imposes an obligation on the parties to penalize the perpetrators means that the state evades these obligations. It means that the state refuses to assume responsibility to prevent violence against women. It means that the state is in cooperation with the patriarchal mindset against women.

"In the midnight when we withdrew from the İstanbul Convention, we saw even on social media that a huge gift has been granted to the men who want freedom to beat women, to the ones like İbrahim Zarap, who beat his ex-wife almost to death in the middle of the street in Zonguldak province and has been arrested upon public pressure, and to those who make use vulnerable to pressure and violence by saying, 'You are not equal to us.'

"Those who sent women subjected to violence back to their homes from police stations, the ones who make women live the life of a prisoner in women's shelters and those who blame women for the violence that they were themselves subjected to were encouraged that night.

"İstanbul Convention was written as a result of the years-long struggle of ours. In no way do we recognize the decision to terminate the Convention.

"The words of a group of men, the decision of the one man is null and void in the eyes of women. Our struggle will continue until the İstanbul Convention is enforced in the way it is supposed to be enforced and until male violence ends. Long live our women's solidarity against misogynists." (EKN/SD)