MALE VIOLENCE MONITORING APRIL 2019
Men Kill 31 Women in April
*Infographic: Yağmur Karagöz
Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish
According to the news reports compiled by bianet from local and national newspapers, news websites and agencies, men killed at least 31 women and two men who were with the women in the third month of 2019. Men also killed two children in April 2019.
Men killed 99 women in the first four months of 2019.
Men raped at least two women in 2019 and harassed at least 22 women. They used violence against 23 women, including one transgender woman.
At least nine women lost their lives suspiciously in April (Batman (2), Çorum, Kocaeli, Aydın, İstanbul, İzmir, Adana, Erzurum).
Najia Arabzai's killing on March 30 was covered by the media after the murder suspect was caught.
Dudu Çeştepe's killing in August 2018 was also covered by the media after the murder suspect was caught.
A man drove women to suicide in Aksaray, İstanbul. In Batman, a man attempted to kill a woman. Two women's bodies were found in Konya and Dersim. The killings were reported by the media as unsolved murders. The name of the woman in Konya could not be determined, the name of the woman in Dersim was Gülsüm Taş.
Murder
According to the news reports compiled by bianet from local and national newspapers, news websites and agencies, men killed at least 31 women in April. Men killed 20 women in the same month last year.
| Names of the murdered women
Arzu S., Aslı Yıldız G., Aycan B. Serra B., Ayla Ö., Reyhan İ., Aysel Ş., Dilek Ö., Hatice Ş., Ayşe İ., Dilan T., Dilek K., Eda K., Emine Y., Fatma B. Rabia B., Gamze Ü., Hamide G., Hatice Ü., Hayat H., Sabah M., İlkay S., Mehtap Ç., Mukadder N., Naciye S., Nur Muhammed B., Özge Y., Sibel A., Sultan Ç., Şeynur A., and one unidentified woman. |
| Provinces where murders were committed
Adana (2), Afyon (3), Bilecik (1), Bursa (2), İstanbul (3), İzmir (4), Kocaeli (1), Malatya (1), Manisa (2), Maraş (2), Mersin (1), Muğla (1), Niğde (1), Osmaniye (2), Sakarya (2), Tekirdağ (1), Urfa (2). |
Men killed five women because they wanted to break up or did not accept a reunion, two women because not giving them money, one woman because she did not make the men see the child, one woman on the pretext that his daughter wanted to break up. A man killed two women after systematic sexual assaults. One woman was killed because she was opposed to her son's relationship. Men's excuses for killing 15 women were not covered by the media.
15 women were killed by their husbands/ex-husbands, five killed by their boyfriends/ex-boyfriends, seven killed by relatives including brothers and fathers-in-law, one by her father, one by her son and one by her daughter's boyfriend. One perpetrator was not covered by the press.
Men killed 14 women in homes, six in public spaces (one in a park, one in a car park, one in a forest, one in front of a school, one in a hotel, one in the entrance of a block of apartments). Information regarding the places of the killings of ten women was not covered by the media.
Men killed 19 women with firearms, seven with knives, four by beating, and one by drowning. At least three of the women demanded protection from a prosecutor's office.
| Judicial process
There were a total of 29 male perpetrators. 15 of them were detained, nine were arrested. Four perpetrators committed suicide. Two perpetrators were covered by the media as "wanted" and "at large". |
Rape
Two incidents of rape were covered by the media in April. This number was four in April 2018. In Kocaeli, a man attempted to rape a woman.
One of the perpetrators who raped a woman was a lecturer in a university. It was revealed after the incident that he is currently on trial for harassing one of his students. Two perpetrators broke into the women's homes.
One incident of rape occurred in the private veterinary clinic owned by the lecturer and one incident occurred in the woman's home. Both men threatened women to not file a complaint against them.
| Provinces where rapes were committed
Ankara (1), Trabzon (1) |
| Judicial process
There were three perpetrators. All of them were arrested and imprisoned for "qualified sexual assault." |
Forced sex work
Men forced 33 women to sex work in April. This number was 63 in the same month last year. 30 of the women were not citizens of Turkey.
| Provinces where women were forced to sex work
Ankara (13), Antalya (17), Mersin (3) |
| Judicial process
There were 22 perpetrators. 17 of them were arrested. One perpetrator was in prison because he previously committed the same offense. Four perpetrators were released on the condition of judicial control. |
Harassment
At least 22 incidents of harassment were covered by the media in April. This number was 30 in the same month last year.
17 of the incidents occurred as physical and verbal harassment, two by shooting a video of the woman and two by sending sexual messages on social media. In at least three of the incidents, the men also battered the women.
Men harassed 18 women in public spaces such as metrobuses, parks, bus terminals and shopping malls, more than one women at homes, two women on social media and one woman via letter.
At least 20 of the women were harassed by men whom they do not know. One was harassed by her ex-boyfriend and one by a fan of her.
| Provinces where harassment cases happened
Denizli (1), İstanbul (5), İzmir (1), Karaman (1), Kocaeli (1), Konya (1), Konya (1), Manisa (1), Sakarya (1), Samsun (7), Uşak (1), Zonguldak (1). |
| Judicial process
There were 17 perpetrators. Nine of them were detained, four of them were arrested. Investigations were opened against two perpetrators. Two perpetrators committed harassment when they left prison upon a permitted leave. One perpetrator previously served a prison term for harassment. |
Child abuse
Men sexually abused at least 13 girls in April. This number was 37 in the same month last year. A man tried to kidnap a girl in İstanbul.
A man in Kütahya opened fire on two boys with a shotgun on the ground that they were "making noise."
Two children were harassed by a security officer in the school, one by his/her grandfather and nine by men whom they do not know. One girl was harassed by her sister's ex-husband.
Men abused two children in schools, one child in a schoolyard, one child in the workplace, one child in a block of apartments, two children at home, two children on streets and two children on buses.
| Judicial process
Four perpetrators were detained, five perpetrators were arrested. One perpetrator was released. One was released on the condition of judicial control. Three perpetrators had records from the same crime. One perpetrator was covered as "at large" by the media. |
Violence, injury
Men used violence against and injured at least 23 women in April. This number was 28 in the same month last year.
18 women were subjected to violence by their husbands or men they married in an unofficial religious ceremony. Two women were subjected to violence by men they do not know, one woman by her work partner, one woman by her friend. The police used violence against one transgender woman.
Men battered 14 women, injured two women with firearms, stabbed five women and ran over one woman with a truck. One man said transphobic words to a transgender woman.
| Judicial process
Six perpetrators were detained. One was arrested. One was released on the condition of judicial control. One committed suicide. Two were reported by the media as "at large." not any action was taken for two perpetrators. One woman did not file a complaint against the perpetrator. Situations of seven perpetrators were not covered by the media. A lawsuit was filed against the transgender woman for "resisting to an officer on duty," not any action was taken against the man who said transphobic words to her. |
| 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)