A man who shot his wife in an “honor killing” on Tuesday in western Çanakkale province posted the murder on social media, Turkish media reported.
Gencay Korur fatally shot his wife Ayşe Korur and on Facebook said he was “proud” as he had protected his honor. The police are still searching for Korur.
Honor killings most often involve the murder of a woman or girl by male family members. The killers justify their actions by claiming that the victim has brought shame or dishonor upon the family name.
Fatmagül Berktay, a gender studies scholar at Istanbul University, said male honor depended on women’s obedience. “If they [women] disobey him, he is emasculated,” she said.
Socializing, working or even wanting to leave the house can be the cause for honor killings. Lawyers argue that law enforcement and sometimes divorce lawyers do not take women seriously when they complain about domestic violence and advise them to go back to their husbands.
According to Berktay the mindset that violence is acceptable has become widespread among Turkish men from all walks of life.
Femicides and violence against women are serious problems in Turkey, where women are killed, raped or beaten every day. Many critics say the main reason behind the situation is the policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which protects violent and abusive men by granting them impunity.
Many victims of violence have said Turkish authorities are ineffective in combatting violence. They say their complaints to the police about abusive partners go unanswered and are ignored.
According to the We Will Stop Femicide Platform (Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu), 280 women were murdered in Turkey in 2021.
In a move that attracted national and international outrage, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan through a presidential decree pulled the country out of an international treaty in March 2021 that requires governments to adopt legislation prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence and similar abuse as well as marital rape and female genital mutilation.
The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is an international accord designed to protect women’s rights and prevent domestic violence in societies and was opened to signature of member countries of the Council of Europe in 2011.
Since Turkey’s withdrawal from the treaty, Turkish authorities have been pressuring women’s rights organizations for their activist work.
