Turkish Novelist Elif Shafak Speaks Out Against Femicide

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Tell me how important this trial is for Turkey. Are people paying attention? What does it mean in Turkey right now?

ELIF SHAFAK, TURKISH NOVELIST: It is a very important case. And it’s just heartbreaking what she has gone through. She’s a very young woman. She’s 31 years old. And she’s been married for over a decade to this man, subject to violence for years. And on that particular night, she was sexually assaulted, stripped naked, tortured in front of her children by her husband. And, as a result of that, among also torture, in pure self-defense, she murders, kills her husband. The case is very important for anyone who believes in women’s rights. And, also, we need to bear in mind that, in Turkey, this is happening every single day. So, two things are happening. The number of cases of violence against women have escalated. And, also, the way the murders are taking place have become more and more violent.

AMANPOUR: Elif, I want to read you a shocking statistic. I couldn’t even believe it. It is said that three women are killed every single day in Turkey. Right here in the U.K., it’s one woman every three days. These are extraordinarily high numbers, and obviously killed, most of them, by men, but those people who are their partners or husbands. Are there any protective laws in Turkey for women?

SHAFAK: It is a huge human rights crisis. And it has been escalating over the years. The government mentions that, in last year, around 266 women have been killed. But we know and women’s rights organizations have been — announced over and over again that the real number’s much higher. And, for instance, a particular organization called We Will End Femicide has detected over 486 cases. And we do know that many cases do not go reported. So, in addition to this, there are honor killings, stories that we never hear about. It has become a major crisis. And, unfortunately, women are left alone. Turkey, as you know, is one of the signatories to the Istanbul Convention, which was signed in 2011. And it’s the first international treaty that protects victims of domestic abuse and gender violence. But now the same country, the same government is trying repeatedly to withdraw from the convention. So, let alone building new laws and taking protective measures to protect the victims, it is even abandoning the treaty that it itself has signed years ago.