Women’s organizations in Turkey draw attention to the fact that it is wrong to address the issue of sexual harassment against women by referring to men’s nationality and that violence against women is instrumentalized as part of political views and conflicts.
Allegations of sexual harassment of women by immigrant men’s have been affixed to the increasing anti-refugee discourse in Turkey recently.
Women’s organizations address this ongoing debate in interview with Nur Kaplan at Duvar News Platform.
The Women’s Platform for Equality Platform (EŞİK) – Lawyer Hülya Gülbahar
“It is clear that showing tolerance depending on the nationality, class, education level and income of the perpetrator will not produce healthy results. It is necessary to pay attention to the instrumentalization of violence against women with nationalistic and even racist feelings resulting from political views and conflicts. When it comes to sexual harassment, no form of positive discrimination can be made against anyone for one reason or another. The fact that the most disadvantaged, powerless, fragile and abandoned segments of society are affected more by any problem is also evident when it comes to these immigration and refugee policies. The status of being an immigrant, with or without legal permission, can also be used as a tool for sexual abuse of children, sexual violence against women, including rape, or legitimizing early marriage or male polygamy.”
President of the Turkish Women’s Union, Lawyer Sema Kendirci Uğurman,
“Those who commit the crime of sexual harassment should be faced with a criminal sentence without discussing whether they are from here or there. But if the current administration talks about deportation this does not mean that the crime committed has been eliminated. Is this the solution? You deport the person who commit the crime and then what? How do you prevent violence? Is this the way to prevent another crime from occurring?”
There is only one answer to all of this, our policies are not right. Deterrent measures should be implemented to prevent the crime. Hostilities emerge as a result of wrong state policies. The problem is mentality and perspective. Since there is no integrated state policy, one mayor may say “I don’t want refugees in my city.” But why are these people here? Were they criminals in their own country? The perpetrator needs to be punished, it doesn’t matter who he is. Is violence justified when it is against a woman refugee?”
Association for Monitoring Gender Equality (CEID) Board Member Sevinç Ünal
“Whoever sexually harass women, Turks, Kurds, Iraqis or Circassians, whatever crime he commits, should be punished. There is a law numbered 6284 in Turkey. Whatever punishment a Turkish citizen gets, you should give him the same punishment.”
Member of the Women’s Defense Network, Çağla Akdere
“While the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention is not that much on the agenda today, the fact that politicians who make policies against it organize anti-immigration hostility on the grounds of women’s security does not go beyond creating a ground of legitimacy.
We need to analyze the imperialist power relations to see why these people are forced to migrate. We cannot do this by calling out the people who are victims of war or who are forced to migrate in other countries. Many Syrian women are afraid to go out. They feel threatened by anti-immigration hostility. Children are exposed to peer bullying, there are children who do not want to go to school.”