Women continue to protest Turkey’s decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention on Protection from Violence. During a protest in Istanbul, attention was drawn to fifty murdered women who could still be alive.
Women in Turkey continue to take to the streets to condemn the decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention taken by presidential decree. On Friday, on Barbaros Square in Istanbul's Beşiktaş district, the stories of fifty women who were murdered by men were read out. Actvisist reminded that these women could still be alive had the Istanbul Convention really be implemented.
Activists made it clear that they will not accept the presidential decree which which the country pulled off from the Istanbul Convention.
HDP politicians Züleyha Gülüm and Elif Bulut joined the action, which was accompanied by a large police presence. The women shouted "Jin, Jiyan, Azadî" (women, life, freedom), "No male justice - true justice!", "We are not silent, we are not afraid, we do not obey" and "Femicide is political". A huge banner read: "We won’t give up the Istanbul Convention."
The Istanbul Convention was drawn up in 2011 by the Council of Europe and intended to create a Europe-wide legal framework to prevent and combat violence against women. The agreement is considered a milestone in the fight against patriarchal violence and obliges the signatory states to combat gender-based violence and to improve prevention and support services. Turkey was the first country to sign the convention and ratified the treaty in parliament in 2012, but in practice the legal norms have not been implemented.
