The Prime Ministerial Directorate on the Status of Women has published the results of a study carried out on domestic violence in 2008. It used around 150 female interviewers to speak with around 12,795 women in August and October of last year.

The interviews were supplemented with 9 focus groups, six of them male and three professional, as well as 64 in-depth interviews with mothers, mothers-in-law, men, NGO representatives and professionals.

Physical, sexual, emotional abuse widespread

The study found that 41 percent of women in Turkey have experienced physical or sexual violence on the hands of a husband, former husband or a partner. Nearly every second woman suffers emotional violence/abuse.

Around 15 percent have experienced sexual violence only, while four in ten women have experienced physical violence only. Further questions into the type of physical violence revealed the following experiences:

• Slapping the face or throwing something: 37 percent
• Pushing, shaking or pulling hair: 19.4 percent
• Throttling and making burns on the body: 5 percent
• Threatening a woman with a knife, gun or similar weapon and using them: 2.6 percent

The rate of violence is slightly higher in rural areas, with 43 percent compared to the rate in cities, which is 38 percent.

Education levels and attitudes towards gender roles

Of the women who have experienced physical or sexual violence, 55.7 percent have had no schooling, while 22.2 percent have high school diplomas or higher education.

The study also reports indication of abuse outside of partnerships and marriages. 7.2 percent of the women were sexually abused as children. 17.2 percent were exposed to physical violence after their childhood. 3.3 percent of the women were sexually abused after their childhood.

When asked about their attitudes about gender roles, 33 percent of women believed that men should not have to do housework and 31 percent thought that women could not deny their husbands sex. 47 percent thought that men were responsible for their wives, and 49 percent thought that a woman should not argue with her husband.

Of those women who had experienced physical or sexual violence, only 8 percent complained. 92 percent remained silent…(EZÖ/AG)