Everywhere is a crime scene!
Every day, at every age, we are dying, being harassed or raped, and subjected to physical and emotional violence. And it’s happening over and over again, often by those we trust the most, in the places we feel safest. Our voices and laughter are repeatedly being silenced.
On October 4, 2020, a man named Semih Çelik brutally murdered two young women, Ayşenur Halil (19) and İkbal Uzuner, in broad daylight in the middle of Istanbul, just half an hour apart, before committing suicide. That same week, in Beyoğlu, another woman was assaulted in the street by two men. Initially, they were taken into custody but then released. Only after public outrage, especially on social media, were they arrested again.
In the first eight months of 2024 alone, 261 women were killed by men, with the deaths of 164 women still suspicious. In September alone, 34 women were murdered. Most of these women were killed because they wanted to divorce, refused to reconcile, rejected marriage, or declined a relationship. Around 80% of these women were killed in their own homes, highlighting the chilling fact that women are mostly killed by men they know, often within their own “sacred” families.
One of the main reasons for the increasing numbers of such cases is the distorted, possessive perception men have about women’s roles in relationships, which is supported by state and judicial policies. Men know they won’t face deterrent punishments for these murders. Women, too, know that the justice system won’t protect them.
Women’s faith in the justice system has completely vanished. The clearest and most important example of this is the young woman in the Beyoğlu harassment case, who was unable to file a complaint against her assailants.
Minister of Family and Social Services, Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, gives messages of “zero tolerance for violence against women” following the murders of women. But we ask: is this your understanding of zero tolerance toward violence against women? Your government withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, even though it is still legally valid, and opened the 6284 law for debate. You reward the perpetrators with impunity. This isn’t zero tolerance against violence; it’s zero tolerance for women’s existence and independence. Isn’t it the policy of President Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling AKP government toward the Istanbul Convention and Law 6284 that politicizes these murders, breaks down the barriers against male violence, and causes these killings to multiply every day?
Every woman who is murdered or subjected to violence is a victim of the AKP government’s misogynistic policies, which have surrounded our lives since they came to power. The blood of women is on the hands of the so-called “male justice” that rewards and emboldens these perpetrators with impunity.
The family concept you glorify has become an endless prison where women and children are constantly exposed to violence, abuse, and oppression. While Narin’s pain is still fresh, and the murder in a village of 90 households has gone unsolved for months, we have learned that the murder took place in Narin’s own home, which was supposed to be her refuge. Our baby Sıla, a child we couldn’t even associate with words like violence, abuse, or death, was taken to the hospital and placed on a ventilator due to severe damage to her internal organs caused by sexual abuse and violence—once again, in her own home. While we waited with hope for her recovery, we sadly received the news of her death yesterday.
Last week in Osmaniye, a 14-year-old girl was forced to identify 18 different rapists. Yet only 10 of them were arrested, meaning the government and judicial authorities found it acceptable for the remaining abusers to walk free on the streets.
According to TÜİK (Turkish Statistical Institute) data, 11,177 children were married off in 2023. Here’s another sacred family prison for you.
The only party responsible for the premature deaths of these young children, who died enduring unbearable pain inflicted by the people they trusted the most, is the government and its policies that seek to detach women from society and turn them into objects and slaves.
The government’s attempts to enslave women, sever them from life, and commodify them have become so uncontrollable that they even see our bodies as their domain. They think they have the right to decide how we dress, whether or not we will become mothers, how many children we will bear, and even how we will give birth. We will never surrender our lives, health, or bodies to those who believe they can make these decisions for us.
Those who fear the powerful footsteps of women in politics didn’t hesitate to tarnish the career of a young woman battling a serious illness, framing her success as a charity handout from a man she was supposedly romantically involved with. We will drown this mindset in its own filth. We will continue to be in politics, and in life, for our sisters—with such determination that it will give you nightmares.
We will never allow you to sanitize femicides by labeling the perpetrators as maniacs, perverts, or mentally ill, nor will we allow you to portray these politically motivated femicides as isolated incidents.
The murderer of Ayşenur and İkbal is not just Semih Çelik. The prime culprit is the AKP-MHP alliance, which has made a political choice not to prevent femicides and to pursue misogynistic policies, just as they were responsible for the murders of other women before them.
For every woman walking down the street in fear, we are burning with enough anger to light up these cities and walls. We want to live!
We will never stop asking, “Where are Rojin and Gülistan Doku?” or “What happened to Narin?” We will follow the case of Sıla’s murderers until they get the punishment they deserve.
We are not afraid of the government that encourages male violence, and we will not submit. We will continue to hold all perpetrators accountable, raise our voices, defend each other, and stand in solidarity until these misogynistic policies and the male-dominated justice system are gone—and we will win.
Women have been fighting for every single right they have since the dawn of time. You will not touch a single one of the rights we have won through blood and struggle. Until women in this country can exist freely, and until all harassers, murderers, and torturers are brought to justice, we will continue to fight, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand with our sisters. We will not take a single step back.
Long live women’s solidarity.
Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Women, Life, Freedom)!