Is Turkey getting more dangerous for women?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2024
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Historically, Turkey has always had a strong women’s rights movement, stemming from the days of the Ottoman Empire through to the emergence of the Republic of Turkey into the present day. At the top of the movement’s agenda now is the fight to protect women against violence from men. It’s three years since Turkey pulled out of the Istanbul Convention, the Europe wide treaty on combatting violence against women and girls. The Turkish Government has its own version of domestic violence law, but there are concerns that this doesn’t offer the same protection as the Convention.
Campaigners say that femicide and violence against women continues to plague society and that there is an increasingly anti-gender rhetoric within mainstream politics.
So, this week on The Inquiry, we’re asking ‘Is Turkey getting more dangerous for women?’
Contributors: Dr. Sevgi Adak, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, The Aga Khan University. Professor Seda Demiralp, Işık University, Turkey. Dr. Ezel Buse Sönmezocak, International Human Rights Lawyer, Turkey Dr. Hürcan Aslı Aksoy, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin.
Presenter: Emily Wither Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Katie Morgan Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey
Image credit: Cagla Gurdogan via REUTERS from BBC Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast I'd like to introduce myself. |
| 0:03.4 | My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC commissioner for a load of sport |
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| 0:28.7 | to dedicated sports fans across the UK. |
| 0:31.1 | So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more. |
| 0:35.8 | Welcome to the Inquiry with me Emily Wither. Each week one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:43.0 | March 2024, Merson Southern Turkey, |
| 0:50.0 | and 31-year-old Mervey Beyer has been killed by her ex-husband. |
| 0:55.0 | Here her mother burns her wedding dress in protest against femicides, warning young women to think 30 times before getting married. |
| 1:12.0 | Mervais was one of at least 90 times. times before getting married. |
| 1:19.0 | Mervais was one of at least 92 women killed by men in the first three months of this year, including seven on one Tuesday in February, the highest known number of femicides in Turkey in a single day, |
| 1:27.0 | all at the hands of husbands or ex-partners. |
| 1:30.0 | It's been three years since Turkey pulled out of the Istanbul Convention, a Europe-wide treaty on combating violence against women and girls, |
| 1:39.0 | an issue that the country is still struggling to stamp out. |
| 1:44.1 | That's why this week on the inquiry, |
| 1:46.4 | we're asking, is Turkey getting more dangerous for women? |
| 1:55.0 | Part one, Ottoman feminists. Our story begins more than a hundred years before the founding of modern Turkey |
| 2:04.4 | when it was at the heart of the Ottoman Empire that stretched from Europe to the Middle East. |
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