Violence against women ‘aggravated amid pandemic’
ISTANBUL
Violence against women continues to be a grave problem in Türkiye, as in the rest of the world, an expert has said, pointing out that pandemic and international crises have aggravated the picture of violence.
Around 30 percent of women across the globe are subjected to physical or sexual violence by their partners or by people who are not their partners, said Pınar Melis Yelsalı Parmaksız, a professor from Bahçeşehir University.
“Violence is mostly perpetrated by partners, as 27 percent of women who have a partner are subjected to physical or sexual violence by them, while in Türkiye, 36 percent of women are subjected to physical violence by their intimate partners.”
Parmaksız, who is also the head of the university’s Inequality and Inclusion Commission, also pointed out that there are five times more women all over the world who request support due to violence and call helplines amid the pandemic.
In the emergency report titled “Violence against women during COVID-19” prepared by the U.N., more than half of the women who participated in the survey stated that they or a woman they know had been subjected to violence during their stay at home during the pandemic, Parmaksız said.
As per a research report, violence against women has also increased three times in Türkiye during the pandemic, Parmaksız stressed.
She informed that between January and November 2020, the “protective measures” decisions taken by the police in the fight to end violence against women increased by 45 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, while the “preventive measures” increased by 72 percent, according to the data of the Interior Ministry.
Any act against a woman that is against her will and that harms her psychologically, physically, sexually, or economically is included in the definition of violence, she emphasized.
Suggesting that violence against women is not an individual act that needs to be treated psychologically or perpetrated by deviant men, the expert reiterated that gender inequality lies at the root of the violence.
