Murder of Trans Woman Hande Şeker Protested in Kadıköy

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Rights advocates commemorated transgender woman Hande Şeker in front of Süreyya Cinema in Kadıköy, İstanbul yesterday (January 14).

In a row that erupted in an apartment in Konak, İzmir, the bullets from the firearm of a police officer killed trans woman Hande Şeker and wounded trans woman Y.A. and A.T.K. on January 9. Throughout 2018, four trans individuals were murdered in Turkey.

CLICK - Trans Woman Murdered in İzmir, 1 Police Officer Detained

Meeting upon the call of the Lambdaistanbul Association, the rights defenders chanted the slogans "Trans murders are political" and "Transphobia, homophobia, prostitute phobia kill." They also carried banners which read "Femicides are political" and "Trans murders are political."

* Massacred women are our revolt

Gülay Özbulut read out the statement for the press on behalf of the group. Here are some of the highlights from the statement:

"Turkey is, unfortunately, the country with the highest number of trans murders in Europe and ranks ninth in the world in that regard.

"We are, once again, spilling out our anger against this system, which takes away the basic rights of these women, separates them from formal education, prevents them from being employed and leaves them no choice other than doing forced and precarious sex work and always has the police violence in stock for them! Transgender women are women.

"Murders are not isolated incidents"

"The lives of women are being trivialized. The patriarchal system is making up different excuses for femicides.

"Some of these women are murdered due to transphobia, some of them are killed because they are labelled as dishonorable and some of them are killed because they reject the love of men. We know that these murders are not isolated incidents, but a result of the patriarchal system. We want these murders to immediately come to an end."

Referring to the İstanbul Convention on this occasion, Özbulut also made a call to the state to abide by the convention and secure the rights of women regardless of their gender identity. (EMK/SD)