Canan Güllü

Violence against women continues to be a grave problem in Türkiye, as the number of femicides rose from 348 in 2021 to 381 last year, which means at least one woman fell victim to femicide every day last year alone, shows the data from the Federation of Women's Associations of Türkiye (TKDF).

In the last 13 days 12 women have been killed in Türkiye as women's rights defenders cry out against the lack of preventative policies.

Some of these women, who were killed by their husbands or ex-husbands despite the restraining orders, were taken away from life with their child or mother.

The murderer of university student Pınar Gültekin, Cemal Metin Avcı has been served with a reduced prison sentence of 23 years on the grounds of "unjust provocation" on June 20.

The 13th hearing of the case was held at the Muğla 3rd High Criminal Court.

Avcı stated that he was remorseful and said that he committed the murder alone.

Violence against women and femicide continue to be major problems in Turkey, with worrying statistics and daily updated death tolls showing that current preventive measures are far from sufficient.

As the violence against women and femicides continues to be a deeply rooted and prevalent issue in Turkey, human rights defenders and activists are debating whether the hotlines called "calm lines" will help prevent the violence the way it partly did in Colombia.

Some 22 Turkish women have plunged to their deaths over the past year and a half from a balcony or window, raising women's rights groups' eyebrows on whether these were femicide framed as "suicides."

Thousands of people took to the streets of Turkey's largest cities to protest against the country's withdrawal from an international treaty to combat violence against women.

Protests were planned again over the weekend as an appeal against the withdrawal from opposition parties was rejected by the Council of State on June 30.

Domestic violence against women has been on the rise amid the coronavirus outbreak, but women hesitate to report abuses they suffer to authorities because they live in a confined space with their partners and fear that their partners may notice they're being reported.

A university in Istanbul has fired one of its staff after his televised comments about teenage girls' potential for fertility caused public outrage.

During a TV show, Professor Muttalip Kutluk Özgüven, from the computer engineering department at Aydın University, claimed that the age range between 12 to 17 is an ideal period for girls to give birth to their first child.

Child abusers should be sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment as a deterrent measure, Canan Güllü, the head of the Federation of Women Associations of Turkey (TKDF) has said.