Eighteen women killed by men in November

The great shame: violence against women

Bianet monitoring of violence against women makes grim reading

According to Bianet scanning of newspapers, websites and news agencies, at least 18 women were killed by men in the month of November and 15 women were injured. The monitoring presented by Bianet makes a grim reading. With many of the women killed or injured by men they know very well, boyfriends, husbands or family members. Children are victims of violence too. The news, as Bianet specified, do not always include information on age, profession, environment or the perpetrators. In general, the reviewed news were based on the statement of the perpetrators or on police reports. Yet, despite the missing information, a general view revealed that males from all age group expose women from all age groups to violence. Harassment and rape of children has increased in particular.
According to the news, males from all age groups and professions imposed physical and sexual violence to women in November this year.
The perpetrators are usually from the direct environment of the women and children: spouses, boy-friends, fathers, older brothers or acquaintances.
Violence was experienced in all regions and also males and children became victims of male violence; they were injured or killed.
Five of the murders were committed for reasons of “honour”. Five women were killed because they wanted to leave their husbands or boy-friends or because they refused to reconcile.
According to the detailed monitoring carried out by Bianet, five women lost their lives under suspicious circumstances in the past month. Two women were found dead at their homes. Another woman allegedly committed suicide on the day her husband returned home to Giresun (Black Sea coast) after having worked in Istanbul for the past nine months.
Court decisions could not protect women
A male who was under a restraining order because he had exposed his wife to violence stabbed his wife and his son at home.
An eleven-year-old child wounded her father with a knife after he had beaten the child, the mother and the sisters. A 17-year-old juvenile killed his step mother in a heated discussion.
21 men and one juvenile appeared at court for murder, 15 males and one juvenile for causing injury; 37 men were taken to court on allegations of harassment and rape.
Culprits are workers, policemen, politicians, teachers, employers
One of the murderer suspects that belong to a wide range of social groups was a temporarily suspended convict, one was a worker. One woman was killed by her boss.
The girl-friend of a police officer “accidentally shot herself when she was playing around with the weapon of her friend”. The wife of a policeman was alleged to have committed suicide with the weapon of her husband. The wife of another policeman was injured, her niece was killed.
The perpetrators involved in injuring women were peasants, stallholders, workers, bosses, taxi drivers and police officers.
A former minister, a worker and an employee of a private security company were charged with harassment. A chief of police and a former minister were among the males accused of rape.
A primary school teacher who allegedly harassed a student four years ago was arrested.
Nine children and five women were sexually harassed in November, six children and three women were raped. Five girls were harassed or raped by their cousin, uncle or step father. One girl was harassed by the former fiance of her older sister.
Also in November, women were killed by men from their direct environment, i.e. their father, brother, ex-husbands, husbands, boy-friends and step sons. Only one woman was killed by a man she did not know.
Fathers, uncles, boy-friends, husbands and brothers wounded women with knives, sticks, weapons and their fists. Only two women were injured by men they did not know.
Mostly children became victims of sexual harassment and rape. Eight out of ten incidents of harassment reported by newspapers concerned girls younger than 17 years old; five out of eight reported incidents of rape were related to girls younger than 18.
It turned out that most of these children were harassed by their relatives or people they knew. Rapes were committed by cousins, boy-friends, step fathers or other males that the women/children knew.
The age of women harassed and raped ranged between 16 and 67 years.
Men victims of male violence
Seven men and four children died in the course of these incidents, four male adults and two children were injured.
One man killed the boy-friend of his ex-wife. Another man killed a male adult who supposedly had harassed his wife. One male injured another because he thought him to be his wife’s lover. One man who was living together with a couple was killed by the husband and his brother in law.
A male adult who got to know that his wife was at home with another man beat his wife and the other man. He called his neighbour and asked him to bring a rope. He tied the other man up and dragged him to the forest. The police took the beaten woman and the violently treated man into custody. The husband was released after he had given his statement. The neighbour who had supplied the rope stated at the police, “I told him that he could beat or kill whoever he wanted but that I would not be in for that”.
As reported by the papers and websites, people who were killed in November came from the Mediterranean, two from the Aegean region, two from teh South-East, six from central Anatolia, one from the Black Sea region and six from the Marmara region. One person died in each of the cities of Adana, Ankara, Ayd?n, Bal?kesir, Çorum, Eski?ehir, Giresun, Malatya, Sakarya and Van, two each in Bursa and Gaziantep and three people died in each of the cities of Istanbul, Izmir and Konya.
As far as injuries are concerned, one incident each was reported from East Anatolia, the Mediterranean, two each from the Aegean region and South-East Anatolia, three from the Black Sea region, four from Central Anatolia and six from the Marmara region. One person each was injured in the cities of Bursa, Çorum, ?zmir, Kocaeli, Malatya, Mersin, Mu?la, Samsun, Sinop and Zonguldak, two in ?anl?urfa, three in Konya and four in Istanbul.
Incidents of sexual harassment in November were reported from the Mediterranean, the Marmara region, Central Anatolia, South-Eastern Anatolia, the Aegean and the Black Sea coast. One woman or girl each was exposed to harassment in Antalya, Eski?ehir, Gaziantep, ?zmir, Manisa and Mersin, two in Samsun and three in Bursa. Regarding rape, there are no reports in the media from places in Central Anatolia and East and South-East Anatolia. There were news of one rape incident each on the Black Sea coast (Trabzon), two in the Marmara region (Bursa and Kocaeli) and the Mediterranean (Antalya and Kütahya) and four incidents in the Aegean region (Izmir).
According to the tally based on Bianet news, male culprits killed 23 women in October 2010, 17 in September, 35 in August, 23 in July, 10 in June, 16 in May, 25 in April, 20 in March, 14 in February and 16 in January. In 2009, a total of 198 women were killed by men. In November 2009, 28 women were murdered.

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