Women occupy Ministry of Family and Social Policies
ISTANBUL (DİHA) - A group of women occupied the Istanbul building of Turkey’s Ministry of Family and Social Policies, demanding justice for victims of rape in Izmir’s Şakran Prison. Police intervened and violently arrested the women.
Women from the groups Socialist Democratic Party (SDP) and Turkey Reality occupied the building, located in the Cağaloğlu area of Istanbul, demanding the immediate trial of guards who had raped minors in the notorious Şakran Prison. “Children are being raped in Şakran. Don’t watch, rebel,” read the signs of the women, who entered the Ministry building in spite of private security forces’ efforts.
Riot police entered the building, forcefully arresting eight women inside the building and two more women who had gathered outside the building to show support for the occupation. Reporters on the scene also met with police violence.
The Ministry of Family and Social Policies, ostensibly in charge of women’s issues in Turkey, has been under heavy fire since the murder of Özgecan Aslan for closing its eyes to violence against women in the country.
Şakran Prison has been in the news once again over the last several days as women prisoners reported that the situation had escalated and guards were holding pregnant minors in solitary, among other abuses. A team of lawyers reported yesterday that abuse was worse than even reports indicated, with guards handcuffing inmates (including children and the mentally ill) in broom closets, denying medical treatment to juvenile pregnant inmates as punishment and forcing women with children to sleep on the prison floor through their overcrowding policies.
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