For the last 5 days, Turkish press has been concerned by the disappearance of 27-years old university student Pınar Gültekin, who did not get into contact with her relatives since 16th of July.
The shocking news has interrupted the normal Tuesday news feeds – Pınar Gültekin has found dead, killed by her ex-boyfriend 32 – years old. Terrifying death of a young lady has added her name to the list of femicide victims.
Public awareness about the violence against women and femicide has risen, but does it change the statistics? According to the data of Femicide Watch, a total number of 87,000 women were killed intentionally in 2017, 58% of total number were killed by their partners or family members. The rest of the mathematics is quiet simple: 137 women are killed every day by their relatives, 6 – every hour.
This data rises only one question: don’t women have the fundamental right to life? Why someone can decide on whether to take a woman’s life or not? Femicide became a result of gender inequalities in a sense that women are killed because men are assured they have the right to control women’s lives and do not tolerate disobedience. Women become an object of possession, with no rights even to their own life. In patriarchal societies we mostly live in, such model of behavior is transmitted from generation to generation as an insusceptible of medical treatment genetic disease that in any way will kill you one day.
Unfortunately, unless we change the mindset and, thus, ruin the archaic vestiges, we will still mourn thousands of girls and women, like Pınar Gültekin, who were full of hopes, awaiting the best in their lives.
*The information and views set out in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official opinion of the IPE Club.
