Forty-eight women were murdered by men in Turkey in September, setting a record as the highest monthly toll ever reported, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing the We Will Stop Femicide Platform.
Of the 48 women who were murdered, 24 were killed by their husbands or boyfriends, and 11 by their relatives. Additionally, 23 women died under suspicious circumstances during the same period.
At least 10 of the victims were apparently murdered for decisions concerning their own life, such as asking for a divorce, rejecting reconciliation with a romantic partner or rejecting a marriage proposal or romantic relationship.
“These are not just numbers or statistics. They were people like you and me. They were women who were alive in September; now they’re gone,” activist Mustafa Damar, who lost his daughter to femicide, said on X, in response to the alarming statistics.
Troubling cases of violence and abuse towards women and girls continue to surface.
In Adana, a 15-year-old girl was harassed by a man with a lengthy criminal record, who has since been arrested. In Ordu, a high school administrator was detained for alleged sexual abuse against 16 students, and in Batman, the investigation into an 8-year-old girl found hanged outside her home was closed despite forensic evidence of abuse.
Femicide and violence against women and girls are chronic problems in Turkey, where women are killed, raped or beaten almost every day. According to the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, at least 193 women were murdered by men and another 149 women died under suspicious circumstances in the first half of 2024.
Many critics say the main reason for the current situation is the policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which protect violent and abusive men by granting them impunity.
Turkish courts have repeatedly drawn criticism due to their tendency to grant lenient sentences to offenders, claiming that the crime was “motivated by passion” or by interpreting victims’ silence as consent.
In a move that attracted national and international outrage, in March 2021, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used a presidential decree to withdraw Turkey from an international treaty that requires governments to adopt legislation prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence and similar abuse as well as marital rape and female genital mutilation.
The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is an international accord designed to protect women’s rights and prevent domestic violence in societies. It was opened for signature of Council of Europe member countries in 2011 and entered into force in 2014.
Erdoğan’s allies have been calling for further rollbacks, urging the repeal of a Turkish law that stipulates protection mechanisms for women who either have suffered or are at risk of suffering violence.