Prosecutor seeks to shut down Turkey's leading women's rights organisation for “immorality”, a direct attack on suppressing the women's movement

Prosecutor seeks to shut down Turkey's leading women's rights organisation for “immorality”, a direct attack on suppressing the women's movement
Photo Source: “Hukuksuz Davalarla Kapatilamaz” by We Will Stop Femicide Platform, via Twitter, 2022.

20-04-2022

Idil Igdir

Women’s Rights Researcher, 

Global Human Rights Defence. 

A lawsuit is filed against the We Will Stop Femicide Platform (WWSF) by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office demanding its dissolution for "acts contrary to law and morality”. It was stated that the closure case was opened based on written applications such as "under the guise of defending women's rights, it disintegrated the family structure by ignoring the concept of family” (Bianet, 2022). A critical attempt that will have consequences in Turkey's upcoming elections in 2023.

The “We Will Stop Femicide” Platform* is Turkey's prominent anti-femicide organisation whose main aim is to bring justice to victims of violence and femicides, thus advocating the re-implementation of the Istanbul Convention. The organisation, which has been following femicides for 12 years and fighting for women, now is at risk of being shut down as of April 13, 2022 (Buyuk, 2022). 

Therefore, the news from the prosecutor angered feminists and sparked nationwide protests (Michaelson & Narli, 2022). On April 16 and 17, women from 24 different cities in Turkey took to the streets to protest against this dissolution lawsuit on moral grounds and the streets were filled with slogans "If protecting women is a crime, we will continue to commit this crime”.

Fidan Ataselim, general secretary of WWSF, later said: “We don’t see this as just an attack on us. For us, this is an attack on all women in Turkey, on all social movements, on the entire democratic public opinion” (Michaelson & Narli, 2022). 

Moreover, support came from everywhere, from singers to politicians in Turkey. Selin Sayek-Boke, an MP of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) shared on Twitter, "I stand by the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, which is targeted by the masculine order with unlawful and empty lawsuits!” (MacDonald, 2022). 

  • "You will never walk alone", one of the slogans of the Platform, which gives a small ray of hope to women in Turkey in the darkest times, creates a symbol for all women like never before in the face of the rising level of sexism and violence in the country. 

Source and Further Readings

Bianet, (2022, April 13). Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu’na kapatma davası. Bianet. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from  https://m.bianet.org/bianet/toplumsal-cinsiyet/260406-kadin-cinayetlerini-durduracagiz-platformu-na-kapatma-davasi

Buyuk, H. F, (2022, April 14). Turkish Women’s Rights Group Faces Shutdown for ‘Immorality’. Balkan Insight. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from  https://balkaninsight.com/2022/04/14/turkish-womens-rights-group-faces-shutdown-for-immorality/

MacDonald, A, (2022, April 14). Turkey: Prominent anti-femicide campaign group threatened with closure. Middle East Eye. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-anti-femicide-group-threatened-closure-legal-case

Michealson, R, Nazli, D. B, (2022, April 14). Turkish women’s group targeted as Erdoğan fans flames of ‘culture war’. The Guardian. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/apr/14/turkish-women-rights-stop-femicide-group-targeted-as-erdogan-fans-flames-of-culture-war