Turkey leaves Istanbul Convention: “We are not silent, we are not afraid”

Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention for the Protection of Women against Violence has been effective today. Many women in the country are fighting for the preservation of the agreement and against the patriarchal government in Ankara.

In 2011, 13 countries signed a convention for the protection of women in Istanbul, the Istanbul Convention. Turkey was also there – until today. Because on July 1st, Turkey left the agreement. When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the move overnight in March, women’s rights organizations were shocked. Since then, they have been fighting against it and are planning a march through central Istanbul on the deadline.

Together with other women, Tugce is also campaigning for Turkey to remain in the agreement. A long piece of purple fabric lies on the floor of one of the women’s meeting rooms. What is the label on it? Tugce asks her friend Feride. She doesn’t know that exactly yet. Something like: “We’re not giving up the Istanbul Convention,” she finally says. Tugce is a small, petite woman with long, dark curly hair.

If you ask her about her job, she confidently says that she is an activist and that she is fighting for women’s rights. Because they are regularly injured in Turkey. You don’t necessarily need a beating husband to do this. The pressure that the government is exerting on the issue of the next generation of families is also a form of violence.

“Just a few days ago, Erdogan made a televised speech urging his compatriots to father at least three children per family,” says Tugce. “As a single, childless woman who doesn’t want to have any children either, I feel pressured. And that is also a form of violence.”

Many women report experiencing violence

And then the 32-year-old tells almost in the same breath about an experience with her former boyfriend. “I was very young and he pushed me into sexual intercourse against my will, I was 18,” she recalls. She only learned to defend herself against such violence in the women’s movement. “Before I couldn’t even properly classify what had happened to me, only later.”

Many women in Turkey report such or similar experiences, often through their friend, husband, father or brother, or through someone close to them. Tugce laughs a lot, only when she remembers does she get serious.

“This is a social problem”

At the time, she was angry with her boyfriend and what had happened. “It wasn’t until later that I realized that this was actually a social problem and that this society had put me in such a situation,” says Tugce. Since then, she has wanted to change society. The Istanbul Convention helps, she says. The international treaty was binding for Turkey. “That was something that strengthened us – in court, at the police station, in civil law for violent crimes. The Istanbul Convention had simply made us stronger,” said Tugce.

Her friend got away with no charge or punishment. Tugce can live with that. In their eyes, this society not only brought them into this situation back then, but also made their boyfriend the perpetrator.

For Tugce’s friend Feride, the position of the government in Ankara is clear. This is based on a patriarchal, conservative and family-oriented system. “And she’s afraid that if women demand equality, and there are LGBTI people, that will destroy their supremacy,” says Feride. “And if all your wealth and power is based on subjugating other people, then you don’t want them to rebel against it, especially not with this broad support from society.”

Demonstrations were banned

The activists risk a lot. Many of them have been arrested at least once. Even when marching through the center of Istanbul in the evening, Feride expects a massive police presence. On the walls there are large photos from earlier times of marches on Women’s Day with tens of thousands of participants. That is over, in the last few years the demos have always been banned.

The activists took to the streets anyway, including Rüya. And now she wants to fight for the Istanbul Convention too. “We have a slogan, we are not silent, we are not afraid, we do not obey,” she says. The 40-year-old with the blonde wishing curls is kneeling on the purple panel. With a bar of soap in hand, sketched the letters. They agreed that it should be written in bright yellow: “We’re not giving up the Istanbul Convention, it’s not over for us yet.”