MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Amed – In Turkey, 36 women were killed by men in March, says We Will Stop Femicide Platform. In the first two weeks of April, press outlets reported many femicides. The Diyarbakir Bar Association’s Women's Rights Center executive committee member and lawyer Öykü Çakmak noted that the violence against women has increased in Diyarbakır, like in other cities of Turkey. She reported that 165 female victims of violence applied to the bar association just in March.

“Women were subjected to many forms of violence”

Öykü Çakmak told us that the women, who applied to the association, were subjected to many forms of violence, “A significant majority of these women were subjected to many forms of violence at the same time. 28 women were subjected to sexual violence, 63 women were subjected to psychological violence, 69 women were subjected to economic violence, 75 women were subjected to verbal violence while 63 were subjected to threats.”

“The number is much higher than official figures”

Stating that the official figures don’t reflect the truth, Öykü Çakmak expressed that the real number of violent incidents is known by everyone, “Women can rarely go out and have limited phone calls particularly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The women applied to the bar association tell us, ‘Please don’t call me, I cannot talk to you when my husband is at home.' More women have faced violence because men spend more time at home. We have gone through a period in which the violence against women is more invisible. So, we know very well that the number of female victims is more than we know.”

“The figures on violence are worrisome”

Öykü Çakmak stated that many incidents of femicide have recently occurred in Diyarbakır, “165 women applied to the Bar Association just in March. Perhaps this is a small number for a city with a population of two million, but these figures are worrisome and show how women have faced systematic violence. In March, 36 women were killed. The number of femicides was 25 last year in March. And this shows how violence against women has increased.”