5Harfliler is an online journal focusing on gender, politics, art and pop culture. The publication is based in Istanbul and pursues a transnational feminist agenda. For any queries, please contact us at 5harfliler@gmail.com
The recent debate regarding Turkey’s possible withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention has sparked protests all over Turkey. Women and Lgbti+ have taken to the streets in defense of their basic human rights. We spoke to 5 of these organizations across the country.
Contrary to the general assumptions, the Justice and Development Party base does not comply with everything that the government decrees, neither about alimony law, early marriages nor about the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention.
The Istanbul Convention has become a very critical lens not only to see the record of gender equality in Turkey but also to predict AKP’s and Turkey’s future.
We spoke with Meral Danış Beştaş, member of Parliament from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), one of the lawyers in the Opuz Case, in which the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) held a state accountable for discrimination caused by gender-based domestic violence for the first time. Beştaş explains how the Opuz Case was foundational for the Istanbul Convention.
We interviewed Prof. Dr. Nilgün Toker on the connections between the recent restrictive regulation on social media, the status change of Hagia Sophia from museum to mosque, and the current discussions to rescind from the Istanbul Convention.
Thanks to the Istanbul Convention, in the event of a partner violation or persistent pursuit against LGBTQ+ individuals, we can get results when we apply for restraining or protection orders.
The state, which under normal circumstances has no qualms about meddling with our private lives, anchors such cases to the protection of family in a patriarchal manner if the case involves a family.
We used to struggle to extend our rights, and now, we are reduced to a position of trying to preserve them.
We continue to stand in solidarity to defy the oppression against women.
If we could only tell abused children that abuse is abuse, and that it has nothing to do with love.