Rally planned to protest femicides in Turkey

ISTANBUL

DHA File Photo

A rally has been planned in central Istanbul to protest femicides across Turkey amid an alarming number of women murdered by men in recent years, despite the efforts of activists to prevent this significant problem, as the world readies to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Nov. 25. 

More than 1,100 women were killed by men during the past five years across the country, according to the website www.kadincinayetleri.org. A total of 1,134 women were killed for reasons such as “dying their hair red,” “buying a new dress,” “not cooking potato croquettes,” “not passing the salt,” or “just being irritating” between the years 2010 and 2015. The murderers are often their husband, ex-husbands, partners, sons, brothers, friends, or even rejected men who hardly knew these women.

The November 25 Women Platform has called for women to attend the rally scheduled to take place on İstiklal Avenue in the heart of Istanbul starting at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 25.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has also planned “Orange Events” as part of its “Orange the world: End violence against women and girls” campaign between Nov. 25 and Dec. 10, when Human Rights Day is marked. Violence against women is a worldwide problem, according to the U.N. One in three women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence – most frequently from an intimate partner - the U.N. said in a report released on Nov. 6. 

Around 4.5 million people are victims of forced sexual exploitation and some 98 percent of them are women and girls, according to the U.N.’s data.

“Some 35 percent of women and girls globally experience some form of physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, with up to seven in ten women facing this abuse in some countries,” it said.

“Worldwide, more than 700 million women alive today were married as children, 250 million of whom were married before the age of 15,” said the U.N. Girls who marry before the age of 18 are less likely to complete their education and more likely to experience domestic violence and complications in childbirth, it added.

The costs and consequence of violence against women lasts for generations.

An estimated 133 million girls and women have experienced some form of female genital mutilation in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the harmful practice is most common, it added.