Women in Şırnak protest femicide and massacres
ŞIRNAK (DİHA) - Women in the Kurdish city of Şırnak, Turkey took to the streets yesterday to protest the wave of femicides in the country.
Men have killed 144 women in Turkey so far this year in an alarming wave of femicides that has sent women into the streets across the country. In Şırnak, a Kurdish city in the southeastern part of Turkey, women gathered at Azadi Square to protest the murder of women emboldened by the state.
Ayfer Şahin, a sociologist at the Zahide Women's Information Center in Şırnak, said that the state's longtime practice of arming groups in the Kurdish region has escalated the level of killings of women in the area. She noted that there has been no legal effort to deal with the use of these weapons within the family.
'Let's be in collective solidarity against the patriarchal mindset'
Şahin also called attention to the wave of suicides and alleged suicides by young women in the region. Turkey's Family and Social Policies Ministry has never conducted any research into the phenomenon, although women's groups have tracked the rise. Şahin said this lack of official attention has contributed to the invisibilizing of young women's suicides.
"Let's not end our lives; let's struggle together," said Şahin. "Let's be in collective solidarity against the patriarchal mindset that is targeting our freedom and our lives."
(cm/nt)
