MALE VIOLENCE MONITORING REPORT MARCH 2019
Men Kill 22 Women in March
Graphic: Yağmur Karagöz
Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish
According to the news compiled by bianet from local and national newspapers, news websites and agencies, men killed at least 22 women and two men who were with the women in the third month of 2019. Men also killed two children in March 2019.
In the first three months of 2019, men killed 68 women.
Men raped at least six women and harassed at least seven others in March.
The news compiled by bianet from local and national newspapers, news websites and agencies have shown that men abused eight girls and injured at least 20 women in March. Men also forced at least 22 women to sex work.
Moreover, men attempted to kill two women in Adana and Ankara. Two women also suspiciously lost their lives in İstanbul and Ankara.
Men threatened two women with death in Samsun and İstanbul. The perpetrator of a femicide committed 14 years ago was identified in March. One woman in Antalya attempted to claim her own life (M.U., who was dissuaded from suicide, said that she attempted to take her own life after a man that raped her three month ago has been released).
CLICK - Male Violence Monitoring Reports 2008-2019
Murder
According to the local and national news compiled by bianet from local and national newspapers, news websites and agencies, men killed at least 22 women in March 2019. In the same month last year, men killed 14 women.
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Names of murdered women Arzu Ö., Ayşe D., Ayşe K., Ayyuş Ç., Deniz E., Dilek A., E.Ç, F.Y, Fatma E., Fatma Ş., K.L, Leyla E., Mine T., Müslime B. , Nesrin B., Nihal I., Özlem S., Rabia K., Saadet K., Seher P., Sibel B., Zeynep Ö. |
Provinces where murders were committed
Antalya (1), Antep (1), Aydın (2), Bursa (1), Dersim (1), Erzurum (1), İstanbul (5), İzmir (3), Kocaeli (1), Konya (1), Mersin (2), Sakarya (1), Tokat (1), Trabzon (1).
36 percent of women were killed because they wanted to break up or did not accept reconciliation. Men killed six women because "they wanted to break up/divorce" and killed one woman on the pretext of "jealousy." Men killed two women because their daughters wanted to divorce. The "pretexts" of 13 femicides were not reported in the news.
40 percent of murders were committed in public places.
Men killed nine women in a public place (three of them in traffic while the car was on the go, one woman in a children's park, one woman at school, one woman in an abandoned building, three women on the street, one woman at the workplace). Men killed 11 women at home. The places of two femicides were not reported in the news.
Nine women were killed by their husbands, two women by their sons-in-law, one woman by the husband of her big sister, two women by their boyfriends, two women by their ex-husbands, one woman by her colleague at workplace and one woman by the father of her child's friend from school. One woman was killed by her son. The degree of acquaintance between three women and perpetrators was not reported in the press.
Men killed 14 women with firearms such as rifles and pistols, one woman with a knife and one women with both a gun and a knife. Men killed one women by hitting her with a baseball bat on the head and one woman by hitting her with a piece of wood on the head.
While men killed two women by strangling them (one with hands, the other with chains), they killed another woman by dragging her with a car. Men also killed one woman by throwing her from the balcony.
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Judicial process There were at least 22 male perpetrators in March. While one perpetrator was a gendarmerie officer, one perpetrator was below the age of 18. Eight perpetrators were arrested and four perpetrators were detained. While six perpetrators committed suicide, two others attempted to claim their own lives (the ensuing processes after their attempted suicides were not reported in the news). The judicial processes of two perpetrators were not reported, either. |
Child Murder
Men killed two children in March. While one of the deceased children was killed by the father, the other child was killed by the male cousin.
Provinces where child murders were committed:
Dersim (1), Kırklareli (1)
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Judicial process There were two perpetrators, both of them have been arrested. |
Rape
Men raped at least six women in March. This figure was eight last March.
Men raped five women at home and one woman in the car. Men also attempted to rape three women in Giresun, İstanbul and Kocaeli.
While one woman was raped by her big brother, one woman was raped by a man that she met on social media and two women by their boyfriends. One woman was raped by four male strangers.
One woman raped by men had mental disabilities. In at least two cases, men mugged women after raping them.
The provinces where rapes were committed:
Aydın (1), Eskişehir (1), Kayseri (1), İstanbul (1), İzmir (1), Zonguldak (1)
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Judicial process There were nine male perpetrators who raped women in March. While six men were arrested, a criminal complaint was filed against one of them. One man was released on probation. One man was detained. |
Forced sex work
Men forced 22 women to sex work in March. This number was 10 in the same month last year. In March 2019, 10 of the women who were forced to sex work were not citizens of Turkey.
Provinces where women were forced to sex work
Çanakkale (8), Düzce (12), Tekirdağ (2).
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Judicial process All eight perpetrators were detained. |
Harassment
In March, women harassed at least seven women. One of the incidents occurred by word of mouth, one by sending messages that include sexual content, five by physical contact.
Provinces where harassment cases happened
Ankara (1), Ardahan (1), Bursa (1), İstanbul (1), İzmir (1), Konya (1), Maraş (1).
One woman was harassed by the manager of the hospital where she works, one by the courier whom she was a client of, more than one by three men who are managers of a student dormitory, one by another passenger in a bus, at least one by a university rector, one by men who are employed at a municipality and one by a man whom she does not know.
One woman who was harassed by men was mentally disabled.
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Judicial process There were at least 10 perpetrators. Two of them were detained, lawsuits were filed against five perpetrators. Investigations were launched against two perpetrators. The legal situation of one perpetrator was not reported on the media. |
Child abuse
Men abused at least eight girls in March. In the same month last year, this number was 39. One girl was abused by her father, one by relatives from the same village, one by a small shop owner, two by men whom they met on social media, three by men whom they do not know.
One of the abuse cases was revealed by a teacher, two by the child's family. One case was revealed after it was understood that the child is pregnant.
| Judicial process
There were 233 perpetrators. Nine perpetrators were arrested, 14 were detained. Not any action was taken about one of the abusers. One man previously harassed a child, then was arrested. He threatened the child after he was arrested. The case is continuing in the upper court. |
Violence Injury
In March, men applied violence against and injured at least 20 women. In the same month last year, this number was 46.
13 women were injured by their husbands or the men whom they married in unofficial religious ceremonies. Three women were injured by their boyfriends, three women by the employees of a place they went in a night out, one woman by a customer who came to the store where she is employed.
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Judicial process Three perpetrators were detained, the situation of one of them was reported as "fled" and one was reported as "wanted" on the media. Lawsuits were filed against three perpetrators. One perpetrator was arrested. Legal situations of nine of the perpetrators were not reported on the media. |
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Explanation The bianet Male Violence Monitoring Report only covers women who lost their lives as a result of male violence. We do not include any violence cases or crimes that are not gender-based. Throughout the year, we keep track of unidentified murders and suspicious deaths of women in separate monthly tallies but do not add them to the number presented in the headline. At the end of the year, we examine these cases of unidentified murders and suspicious deaths to determine whether the crimes were gender-based. We add the gender-based incidents into the report. We do not include any murders in the reports that are committed by people with psychological disorders (such as murders committed by people with schizophrenia). We include suicide or suicide attempt incidents in the tally only if the woman was subjected to violence/ systematic violence in her past. We cover these suicide incidents in a separate category and do not add suicide cases to the number presented in the headline. In addition, we don't include femicide cases that occur in a mass murder in which the woman was not directly targeted under the condition that the debated incident is not gender based either. Occupations of the offenders only included in the reports when the incident of violence is related to the occupation of the offender. For example, "Woman was murdered at home by his husband, who is a professional soldier." We add the violence committed on children by men, to make the extent of violence visible. |
(EMK/VK/SD)
Editor of bianet Women’s News (2018). Editor of bianet Women’s and LGBTI+ News from October 2018 to February 2025. She conducts workshops on gender-focused journalism and reporting on gender-based violence. She is among the founders of the Women and LGBTI+ Commission of the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS). She is a board member of the TGS Istanbul Branch for the 2023–2027 term. She received the Musa Anter Journalism Award in 2011 and the Turkish Psychiatric Association’s Best News Award in 2024. She worked as a reporter for Cumhuriyet, BirGün, İMC TV, DİHA, Jinha, and Jin News, and also worked for local newspapers in Rize. Her news reports and articles have been published in Sivil Sayfalar, Yeşil Gazete, Journo, and trade magazines. She is one of the founding writers of GOR, a Hemşin culture magazine. She contributed writings to the books Yeşilden Maviye Karadenizden Kadın Portreleri, Sırtında Sepeti, and Medya ve Yalanlar. She was a bianet intern in 2000. She graduated from the Department of International Relations at Istanbul Bilgi University.
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