Perception of women in Turkish society changes positively: Study

ISTANBUL

The feminist movement in Turkey is having positive feedback on public attitudes, according to a recent survey conducted by KONDA, a research and consultancy firm that specializes in public opinion polling.

The study showed that fewer people agreed with the old saying “men both love and beat,” and fewer people said that women should watch what they wear at work and school to avoid violence and harassment compared to five years ago.

Aimed at finding out whether there had been any social change related to violence against women in the country, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 3,569 people in 32 provinces for the research, titled “August ‘20 Barometer.”

The rate of those who think that unlawful acts can be committed for honor has dropped from 45 percent to 21 percent, according to the research.

Some 248 women were murdered this year so far, according to Anıt Sayaç, an online epitaph of all women murdered by men in the country. Among the “justifications” for these murders were suspected of being cheated on, divorce requests, refusal to get back together, and so-called “honor killings.”

The study revealed that the rate of those who said “women should be careful about what they wear” had dropped from 80 percent to 32 percent while the rate of those with a mindset that a man could both love and beat (woman) had dropped from 20 percent to 6 percent in five years.

The results also showed that only 7 percent of survey participants were in favor of Turkey’s possible withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe treaty aiming to combat violence against women.

However, only one-third of the society has information about the Istanbul Convention, while more than 60 percent do not know the content of the key treaty, according to the findings.

“There has been a significant change in the mentality of the society about violence against women,” KONDA has commented, briefly sharing the observations based on the results.

“While women are gaining their place and weightage in daily life in a rapidly urbanizing and metropolitan country, women are also the triggers of mental transformation,” KONDA noted.