ISTANBUL - Dilek Başalan, Chairperson of the Women’s Time Association, pointed out that women and all individuals should struggle against the inoperative state mechanisms and emphasized that women should respond to attacks with the mechanism of self-defense.

 

While the femicides increase without slowing down, a new one is added to the cases of violence, harassment, abuse and rape every day. Since men are ‘’rewarded’’ with impunity, they continue to commit crimes, assuring that the judiciary does not work. Taking advantage of the pandemic process on April 13, 2020, the Justice and Development (AKP) brought the execution law proposal to the agenda and approved the law that paved the way for the release of perpetrators of violence in the parliament, and thus the majority of the men who committed crimes were released with the execution law. On the other hand, women who used their self-defense were ‘’tried’’ due to the failure of judicial mechanisms while the perpetrators were released.

 

After the official repeal of the Istanbul Convention, which was terminated on March 20 by a Presidential Decree, in July, there was a serious increase in abuse, rape and harassment cases. According to our agency’s violence tally of July, 27 women were killed in the month in question, and eight people died suspiciously.

 

Dilek Başalan,  Chairperson of the Women’s Time Association, made evaluations to our agency regarding the increasing femicides and violence, the impunity ‘’reward’’ given to the perpetrators, the failure of judicial mechanisms, the development of self-defense, and the increase in violence applications after the decision to withdraw from the convention.

 

‘Perpetrators are brought out as a crime machine’

 

Emphasizing that the Istanbul Convention is not only a punishment mechanism, but also aims to bring about change and transformation in the face of violence against women, Dilek said that the convention provides trainings on gender inequality in institutions, Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centers (ŞÖNİM), which can convey gender equality in shelters and stated that it is based on an approach that accepts gender equality as a subject.

 

‘Women should not give up applying to judicial authorities!’

 

Noting that even if the convention has been repealed, women who have been subjected to violence, harassment and rape should apply to the judicial authorities and never give up on their shelter request, Dilek said: ‘’We just want our gains to be operated, we do not want any support from them. These gains are ours and they have to accept our petition for these gains, fulfill the restraining order, protect me and my children, if any, and remove the man from that area.’’

 

‘Judiciary is one of the pillars of the gendercide’

 

Stating that they evaluate the violence, harassment, rape and femicide that women are subjected to with the concept of ‘’gendercide’’, Dilek noted that this policy is tried to spread to all areas of women's lives. Drawing attention to the position of the judiciary within the policies of gendercide, Dilek stated that the judiciary proceeds with a male mind and questions the women who apply for violence. Dilek said: ‘’Women are faced with questions such as ‘where were you, what did you wear, was he your boyfriend, was he your spouse, was he your husband?’, which makes women feel much worse.’’

 

‘They do not know who to complain to’

 

Dilek, who said that the women who applied were subjected to violence again with the psychology of fear and the feeling of not being able to express herself, and therefore had to return to the home where she was subjected to violence, made the following assessment: ‘’Because she cannot explain herself, she does not believe that the other person will respond to her with her rights as a citizen, she does not trust. She also suffers from a breaking of self-confidence. Because she does not know who to complain to. With this fear and feeling of ‘defeat’, she returns to the area where she was exposed to violence, and after a certain period of time, we receive the news that she was killed, maybe she went to prison. She is faced with a process that somehow suffers women and destroys her entire space and life.’’

 

‘There are women in the face of state mechanisms’

 

Noting that the majority of society approaches from a point of view based on state mechanisms, Dilek said that state mechanisms also see women as a secondary, object and legitimize all victimization of women with ‘’but and however’’. Expressing that the femicides will continue if the system continues in this way, Dilek said: ‘’If women and all individuals do not show resistance against the state mechanism, if they do not impose women’s consciousness, if they do not see in themselves the organized power that can cope with their rebellion, words, struggles and beliefs, this mindset will continue like this. Because right now, there are only us, women, in the face of state mechanisms and women are fighting for real justice.’’

 

Self-defense

 

Underlining that women’s way of protecting themselves against attacks is to implement the self-defense mechanism, Dilek said: ‘’How can we protect ourselves as women, not as an individual, but over the organizational structure of the individual and other women’s institutions where they work, where and how can we develop a reflex with the self-defense mechanism.’’ With this opinion, she stated that women’s solidarity should be further strengthened for this reason.

 

Expressing that women are exposed to violence not only in Turkey but all over the world, and that male justice is suffering women again in many places, Dilek made the following call: ‘’For this, we need to know ourselves, to discover ourselves, to know that we are equal with men and all other living creatures, that we can equally benefit from all our rights in the constitution, and that we can defend ourselves if necessary’’