The group, Feminists against Women’s Murders, held a press statement against male violence at Beşiktaş Square in Istanbul.
Women opened two banners stating, “Women are being murdered. Who is the murderer?” and “Murders are no coincidence, they are always committed by men”.
According to JinNews’s report, black cubes were also brought to the protest, with the names of women murdered by men, Jesca Nankabirwa, Özlem Güneş, Pelin Ceylan, Cansu Kaya, Tuba Erkol, Güler Subaşı, Sevda Kuş and Azra Gülendam Hayatoğlu written on the cubes.
The slogans, “Long live our feminist struggle”, “Women’s murders are political”, “Shout it out loud for all to hear so that male violence ends”, “Not an isolated case, but male violence”, “Don’t prevent divorce, prevent murders”, “Not male justice but real justice”, “Trans murders are political”, “Don’t remain silent, shout it out loud, trans people exist”, “Murders are no coincidence, they are always committed by men”, “We won’t remain silent, we have no fear, we will not obey” were chanted at the protest. Each paragraph of the press statement was read out by a different protestor.
“Time to talk about what men are doing”
The statement emphasized that women’s murders are political in nature and that women’s murderers are not only ‘perverts, murderous souls, drug addicts or the psychologically impaired’.
The statement underlined the fact that “ordinary men” and “unlikely” men can become murderers, adding, “We know these murderers. We have begun by writing their names on walls and these boxes. We will make sure everyone knows their names. Why will we do that? Because when a woman is murdered, we always talk about what she did, how she lived, where she was at a certain time of the day, or how many children she had. It is high time to speak about what men do. What men do to women, what they do thanks to all the powers the patriarchy provides them with”.
The statement stressed that the family, society, the judiciary and the state protected the perpetrator men, and that women’s murderers come from all backgrounds.
The statement is as follows:
“Around us, there are men who blatantly use their power against women, never having to think about this fear. Men who belittle women, to such extent that it has become second nature to them. Men who take up every field of life, leaving no room whatsoever to women. Men who seize women’s rights to make their own decisions regarding their lives. And these men are perhaps those who turn around and say how much they are against women’s murders. Yet every man, when he does not see women as his equals, when he does not act towards women as his equals, when he normalizes this inequality, paves the way that leads to women’s murders. He becomes a shareholder of this system with all its privileges. We, as the group, Feminists against Women’s Murders, will continue our struggle to expose the murderers who kill women and the system that protects the murderers. Today, and every day. Long live our feminist struggle!”
For bianet’s reports on male violence please see below:
bianet is Monitoring Male Violence
(EMK/NHRD)
