Women lawyers to form assembly in Turkey and Kurdistan
ŞERİFE ORUÇ
DİYARBAKIR (DİHA) - Women lawyers are planning an assembly to organize against the legal mechanisms that encourage femicide and violence against women in Turkey.
In Turkey, where on average five women are killed every day, one of the main factors aggravating the wave of femicide is the legal system. Women activists have repeatedly pointed out that the patriarchal legal system searches for every avenue to exonerate or reduce the sentences of male perpetrators. Judges eagerly accept far-fetched arguments to prove women "consented" or "provoked" their attackers.
Recently, in the province of Mardin, courts claimed that a 13-year-old girl "consented" to "being together" with the 28 individuals who raped her, justifying a hefty sentence reduction for her attackers. In Bingöl province, the court ruled that there was "consent" in the case of eight soldiers charged with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl. In another incident, a man who introduced himself as a military officer brought three 14-year-old students to his home, where he sexually abused them. Prosecutors originally requested a 150-year prison sentence for the man, who was arrested; however, the court ruled that the child molester could be released on his own recognizance for the duration of the trial and reduced his sentence to ten years. Women and girls' testimony has counted for next to nothing in these cases, say lawyers.
Newroz Uysal, of the Association of Free Lawyers (ÖHD), said Turkey's major legal problem today is "the patriarchal mindset showing itself in the courts through the system of impunity." She noted that impunity outcomes were particularly common in Kurdistan in Turkey, where the state has a long history of policies that amount to a war on women.
Women lawyers in Kurdistan and Turkey have decided to escalate their struggle for women's recognition in the courts by forming a new institution: a Women's Assembly of lawyers. Uysal said that while the women's movement in the area has worked through political parties or NGOs, there is a need for an organized force of women lawyers to monitor and follow up on these kinds of legal situations. The organization will be concerned with more than mere triage in the countless cases of legal abuse of women; Uysal says wholesale legal changes are necessary in Turkey.
"For example, violence against women needs to be accepted as a hate crime based on hate speech," she said. She said the lawyers would also be working to spread the assumption that women's testimony is the fundamental basis for a case. They will travel to bar associations across the country to bring in women lawyers to consult on cases of rape, sexual molestation and violence against women in their systems for assigning lawyers to cases.
Uysal said that to end a legal situation where women's voices, experiences and lives count for nothing, it was time for women to organize.
(cm/nt)
