Over 5,000 Turkish women applied for help due to violence in 2012: Ministry

ANKARA

This file photo shows women protesting against domestic violence. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

The number of women in Turkey who sought the support of the Family and Social Policies Ministry due to domestic violence totaled more than 5,000 last year, according to Minister Fatma Şahin.

All the women who requested the ministry’s help were provided either shelter, psychological counseling or legal assistance, Şahin said, responding this week to a parliamentary question issued by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy chair Sezgin Tanrıkulu. Eighty-seven women found a job thanks to the ministry’s assistance, Şahin added.

At the end of 2012, 6,105 women and 2,628 children were staying at women’s shelters, Şahin said. Under normal circumstances, female victims of domestic violence are able to stay at women’s shelters for six months, but the duration of their stay can be extended according to “developments in the woman’s conditions.”

A majority of the women applying to the ministry are subjected to violence from their husbands, but violence against women is also perpetrated by women's in-laws, as well as their neighbors.

According to data, 1,151 women applying to the ministry were exposed to violence by their husbands, 110 by their fathers, 76 by their brothers and 22 by their sons.

Some women applying to the ministry were also exposed to violence by their female relatives. Fifteen women were subjected to violence by their mothers-in-law, three by their daughters and one of them by her aunt. Another 17 were victims of domestic violence at the hands of their mothers, along with three by their stepmothers, according to the ministry’s information.