Historically, Turkey has always had a strong women’s rights movement, stemming from the days of the Ottoman Empire through to the emergence of the Republic of Turkey into the present day. At the top of the movement’s agenda now is the fight to protect women against violence from men. It’s three years since Turkey pulled out of the Istanbul Convention, the Europe wide treaty on combatting violence against women and girls. The Turkish Government has its own version of domestic violence law, but there are concerns that this doesn’t offer the same protection as the Convention. Campaigners say that femicide and violence against women continues to plague society and that there is an increasingly anti-gender rhetoric within mainstream politics. So, this week on The Inquiry, we’re asking ‘Is Turkey getting more dangerous for women?’ Contributors: Dr. Sevgi Adak, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, The Aga Khan University. Professor Seda Demiralp, Işık University, Turkey. Dr. Ezel Buse Sönmezocak, International Human Rights Lawyer, Turkey Dr. Hürcan Aslı Aksoy, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin. Presenter: Emily Wither Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Katie Morgan Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey Image credit: Cagla Gurdogan via REUTERS from BBC Images
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Welcome to the Inquiry with me, Emily wither.
Each week, one question, four expert witnesses and an answer.
March 2024 Mersin, southern Turkey and 31 year old Merve Beyer has been killed by her ex husband.
Here her mother burns her wedding dress in protest against femicides, warning young women to think 30 times before getting married.
Merve was one of at least 92 women killed by men in the first three months of this year, including seven on one Tuesday in February, the highest known number of femicides in Turkey in a single day, all at the hands of husbands or ex partners.
It's been three years since Turkey pulled out of the Istanbul Convention, a Europe wide treaty on combating violence against women and girls, an issue that the country is still struggling to stamp out.
That's why this week on the Inquiry, we're asking is Turkey getting more dangerous for women?
Part 1 Ottoman feminists Our story begins more than a hundred years before the founding of modern Turkey, when it was at the heart of the Ottoman Empire that stretched from Europe to the Middle East.
It was an Islamic empire, but nevertheless essentially a multi religious and multi ethnic empire.
And Turkey when it was established in the 20s, very much inherited that multi ethnic and multi religious composition of the Ottoman Empire.
There's a spiritual especially a strong degree of continuity in terms of state structure, in terms of institutions, and in many ways we can say that that creates a certain uniqueness to the historical heritage, the cultural and social composition of the society.
Our first expert witness, Sevge Adak, is an associate professor of gender and Middle East Studies at the Agahan University.
It was long believed that the emancipation of women was all thanks to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk when he led the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
But Sevgi says it's thanks to diligent female historians.
We now know women in the Ottoman Empire were fighting for their rights long before he came on the scene.
It started primarily by the non Muslim communities of the Ottoman Empire, but soon the Muslim ot women joined and we can actually talk about kind of an explosion of women's organizations which was inherited by the Republic as well.