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Subject: [WUNRN] Turkey - Activists
Concerned about Challenges for Women's Rights
WUNRN
TURKEY - ACTIVISTS
CONCERNED ABOUT CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS
By Sophia Jones - April 18, 2014
Turkish
women hold a banner reading "Women, we are strong together" during a
march at
"
In the '80s and '90s, a blossoming women’s
movement emerged in
Last year,
Many activists at high-profile women's
organizations here say women's rights will only continue to decline under
Erdogan, who preaches Islamist values and has emboldened a religious
conservative class in
Advocates like Ilkkaracan, who frequently stage
protests and write articles in popular Turkish media outlets, point to
Erdogan's stance on abortion as a prime example of his push to limit women's rights.
Although in 1983 the government legalized abortion up to 10 weeks after
conception, Erdogan announced a plan two years ago to ban all abortions
after four weeks of pregnancy.
"There is no difference between killing a
baby in its mother's stomach and killing a baby after birth," Erdogan said at a conference in 2012. "No one should have
the right to allow this to happen."
Now, many Turkish women say they cannot get
abortions in state hospitals and are forced to go to expensive private clinics.
One Turkish woman in her late 20s, who spoke to The WorldPost on condition of
anonymity, said she recently had to go to a private clinic to get an abortion
and paid 500 Turkish liras, or roughly $235. She says that other women have
paid double that amount -- about half of the average annual disposable income
for Turks in 2012, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute.
"No other [Turkish] government has been so
radical against women," said Ilke Gokdemir, who works at Mor Cati, or
Purple Roof, an organization to combat violence against women.
Gokdemir's organization runs one of the only
independent shelters in
"Instead of concentrating on protecting
women who suffer from domestic violence, the government concentrates on how
they can make the laws more in line with their conservative ideology,"
said Ilkkaracan, whose NGO is called Women for Women's Rights. "There is a
difference between what is happening in the legal sphere and everyday life. The
laws aren’t being implemented."
Though activists say the government has several
dozen shelters for women, Gokdemir laments that they are ineffective. She says
she has heard about many cases in which state shelters sent women back to
abusive households, forced them to send their children to social services, and
denied them access to their cell phones (oftentimes their only means of
communication).
"These are prisons for women -- just
another violent environment," she said.
According to government data, 802 women were killed
from domestic violence over the past five years and 28,000 were subjected to
violence last year. Gokdemir, on the other hand, says that women’s organizations
she works with have much bleaker numbers. She estimates that three to five
women are killed every day in
Women's advocates say there are crucial steps
that need to be taken to curb violence against women: implementing effective
legislation, educating women on their rights, supporting their economic
empowerment, and pushing them to the forefront of political discourse, a
conversation largely dominated by men. The movement cannot move forward without
progress in the political sphere, says Zafer Berkol, chairwoman of KADER, a
prominent Turkish organization pushing for equal representation of men and
women in politics.
"Politics are so important. Why? Because
politicians decide. Men make laws," she said.
The Peace and Democracy Party, the main Kurdish
party in
"There is no democracy, neither in
politics nor in social life," she said, looking back on 20 years of
activism. "And it’s getting worse and worse."
As the country approaches the presidential
elections, Berkol's group is organizing seminars and community-based projects
to educate women on the political process as well as their rights within their
homes and Turkish society as a whole. She says that more than ever, her fight
is an uphill battle.
"At times, I feel like I don’t belong to
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