Not a "Trivial" Matter

From Bianet:

"Women who have been exposed to violence for years call for help only as a last resort and ask to stay in women's shelters. Almost all of them come to us with serious fractures and physical and psychological injuries. Their lives were in danger several times".

With this explanation, Nebahat Akkoç from Ka-Mer, Zozan Özgökçe from the Van Women's Association and Harika Peker from the SELİS Women's Association reacted to a statement made by Oktay Taş, Provincial Manager of Social Services in Diyarbakır in south-eastern Turkey who said that "women apply for shelter for trivial reasons".

Ka-Mer is a Turkish women's group in Diyarbakır that finds shelter for and offers legal aid to women who have been threatened by their relatives. The SELİS Women's Association is active in the region of the Batman Municipality in the country's south-east.

Akkoç from Ka-Mer criticized that provinces make the places of shelter homes public. Peker from SELİS drew attention to problems experienced at provincial directorates for social service.

Özgökçe from the Van Women's Association underlined the fact that women are not only exposed to physical violence but become victims of economic, sexual and emotional violence as well. "Many women cannot talk about the violence they have experienced when they apply to us at first. The most severe traumata are forgotten and surface again years later".

For past posts on domestic violence, which is particularly bothersome in the southeast, click here.

I have seen nothing on where the Kurdish BDP stands on implementation problems of new domestic violence measures in affect throughout Turkey. Recently, the party has taken a stand against berdel marriages, a common custom among some of Turkey's Kurds that sometimes involves forced marriage.