Turkish lawmaker calls female MP an ‘ugly thing’ in parliament

ANKARA – Doğan News Agency

A lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has called a female opposition MP an “ugly thing” during a discussion in the Turkish parliament.

“Am I saying anything to your ugliness? You ugly thing,” AKP deputy Hakan Çavuşoğlu said repeatedly, while Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Meral Danış Beştaş was speaking. 

Another MP from the HDP, Filiz Kerestecioğlu, said Çavuşoğlu had tried to humiliate Beştaş, as she stressed that violence against women has many forms. 

“How can a lawmaker from the ruling party use his manhood via using words that reveal his mind’s ugliness over and over again when a female deputy is speaking?” asked Kerestecioğlu during a press meeting in parliament.

“These were the words that the torturers used in the 1980s and 1990s to humiliate women. The manlike cruelty tactics reach parliament and the houses from torture rooms. They think that they can humiliate women with classifications such as ugly and beautiful, modest and virtueless, but they are wrong. Women want real justice, not manly justice. Women want politicians that are interested in their rights, not the ones interested in ‘acceptable women’ politics,” she added. 

Kerestecioğlu spoke about violence against women in her press meeting, as she talked about the murder of Necmiye Ceren B., a 20-year-old woman who was killed by her police officer ex-boyfriend in Ankara on May 10. 

The police officer, 21-year-old Batuhan H., was previously assigned to the southeastern province of Hakkari, where security operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants were ongoing. 

“Are we seeing another face of war now? We have said countless times that this war won’t only bring death to the ones living in Kurdish[-populated] provinces, but also deeply affect the lives of women. What kind of psychology does the police officer who was previously working in Hakkari have that he murdered his ex-fiancée as soon as he arrived in Ankara?” Kerestecioğlu added.