28 women killed in November in Turkey, femicide watchdog reveals

ISTANBUL

AA photo

Some 28 women were killed in Turkey in the past month alone, the volunteer watchdog organization “We Will Stop Femicide Platform” revealed on its website on Dec. 6.

Four women in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, three in the southern province of Adana, two each in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, Istanbul, southern province of Hatay and the western province of Balıkesir, were killed by men, the report revealed.

The report said 75 percent of the women killed were murdered by their close relatives, including husbands.

The platform said 35 percent of the women were killed for wanting to make decisions over their own lives, 8 percent were killed for wanting to divorce or break up with their partners, and 4 percent were killed while resisting rape.

Some 32 percent of the women were killed in gun attacks, while 24 percent were killed by sharp objects. 

In November, 25 children reportedly lost their mothers to femicides. 

Some of the cases in the report revealed terrifying methods men used in murdering and abusing women.

The genitals of a woman living in the Marmara province of Kocaeli, identified only by the initials N.A., were wounded with nitric acid while her ribs were also broken by her boyfriend. 

Meanwhile, a 21-year-old woman, Şehriban Elmas, succumbed to her injuries after she was found on the street in the Seyhan district of the southern province of Adana. Witnesses said she ran away after she was constantly being beaten up by her husband. The police were reportedly searching for her husband, İzzet Elmas. 

The platform reported that 19 women were sexually abused while one trans woman was subjected to a hate crime in November. 

The women who were sexually harassed were reportedly between the ages 18 and 30. Two women with disabilities also reported that they were raped.  

The platform earlier announced that 94 women were killed over the first three months of 2016, marking a sharp increase from 59 gender-based murders in 2013, as the number of murders increased consecutively each year.