Hundreds of women gathered in the morning of Wednesday June 1 in front of a court in Istanbul, before the opening of a trial which threatens to dissolve one of the main and most active associations for the defense of women’s rights, noted an AFP journalist.
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“You will never be alone!», «We will end feminicides!launched the protesters, waving purple banners, the color of the feminist movement in Turkey. An Istanbul prosecutor decided in April to prosecute the platform “We Will Stop Femicide» and to ask for its dissolution for «activities against law and morals“. The first hearing of the trial opens Wednesday morning. Nursel Inal, one of the platform’s managers, denounced a political trial. “There is a very organized women’s movement in Turkey and we believe this trial is an attack on women’s struggle for their rights.“, she told AFP in court.
160 women killed in 2022 in Turkey
At the origin of the lawsuit, complaints filed by individuals who accuse the members of the association of “destroy the family on the pretext of defending women’s rights“. The platform notably maintains the account and regularly publishes reports on the murders of women. The association also organized several demonstrations for the maintenance of Turkey in the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty establishing the legal and institutional framework for the fight against gender-based violence, from which the country withdrew in 2021. The government Turkish justified its decision to abandon the treaty by accusing it of encouraging homosexuality and threatening the traditional family structure.
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According to the platform, 160 women were killed in the first six months of 2022 in Turkey, the majority of them by family members. The tally of femicide victims last year stood at 423.”We are under pressure from the government because we make each femicide visible, publishing the names of the women killed one by one“says Nursel Inal. “Our reports contradict the government claiming the number of feminicides is down“.
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