Women’s rights activists rallied on Saturday in Turkey to protest alleged sexual abuse of female detainees held for participating in demonstrations that erupted following the detention and arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Women gathered in cities such as İstanbul, İzmir and Antalya to protest unlawful strip-searches, sexual abuse and mistreatment by police while expressing solidarity with the victims. The group in Istanbul had planned to march through the Eminönü district, but their demonstration was disrupted by police intervention.
İmamoğlu and two İstanbul district mayors were among more than 100 people targeted by detention orders issued by the İstanbul chief public prosecutor on March 19. He was arrested on March 23 and remanded to pretrial detention on charges including bribery, embezzlement and unlawful acquisition of personal data.
Since İmamoğlu’s detention, protests have taken place across the country, with law enforcement responding with a brutal crackdown. Media reports have surfaced detailing detainees’ harrowing testimony of unlawful strip-searches, sexual harassment and physical abuse in custody. Several detainees have filed complaints against the police alleging mistreatment.
“We will not stop pursuing those [police officers] responsible until strip-searches and sexual harassment in detention ends, and those who commit these crimes are brought to justice,” representatives said in a speech that was posted on social media.
The women called on Istanbul police officers to stop using sexist slurs, making rape threats and sexually harassing women and for the department to prevent this kind of behavior from ever occurring again within its ranks.
“Your duty is to prevent this kind of behavior — not to commit it yourselves. You are the institution people are expected to turn to when they are harassed. You may have forgotten that, but we haven’t,” they said.
The women added that victims were not alone or helpless in the face of police mistreatment.
“We are organized, united and standing with each other. This mistreatment is meant to humiliate, shame and silence us by targeting our bodies and identities. But that shame has long since shifted. It is not we who should be ashamed, prosecuted or punished — it is them [the perpetrators].”
Unlawful strip-search and sexual harassment in police detention has been a longstanding problem in Turkey.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found strip searches to constitute degrading treatment when not justified by compelling security reasons and/or due to the way they were conducted.
But the practice has been used frequently by Turkish security forces against people suspected or convicted of political crimes. Some of the women said the officers conducting the searches were laughing as they were undressing. Human rights defender and Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu says strip-searches are indeed conducted to humiliate detainees.
In a guide published by the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force in March 2014, it is stated that any counter-terrorism measure related to the searching of persons must be prescribed by law and that strict and precise guidelines must clearly specify the circumstances in which such measures may be used and specify the conditions that must be obeyed by those applying the procedure. Even if a law authorizes — within the context of a personal search or a strip search — an agent to request a person to remove an overcoat, jacket, gloves, hat, sunglasses or any other item that may be used to conceal the person’s identity, the request may only be made when the agent seeks to confirm the identity of a person, or has reasonable suspicion that the person is hiding a weapon underneath items.
However, in reality women in Turkey have been arbitrarily subjected to this practice, and those who have resisted, such as journalist Aslıhan Gençay, have been subject to disciplinary measures. In one harrowing incident, a 5-year-old boy was subjected to a strip-search during a prison visit in Turkey’s Samsun province. The incident was revealed by Gergerlioğlu, who had received a letter from the boy’s mother.
In another highly publicized case, 30 university students arrested in Uşak on August 31, 2020 on charges of links to the faith-based Gülen movement were subject to unlawful strip-searches. The women later described it as the “most humiliating moment of their lives.”
The women later filed a formal complaint with the prosecutor, but their claims were mocked by ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies.
Özlem Zengin, a deputy from the AKP, described women who had revealed their experiences of unlawful prison strip-searches as “disreputable” and “immoral” during a speech in the Turkish parliament.
She said if unlawful strip-searches had occurred in prison, then the victims should have reported them immediately. Zengin added that allegations concerning strip-searches were “fictional” and were used by “terrorist organizations,” in particular by members of the Gülen movement, to disparage the government.
The Gülen movement, inspired by the late Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, is accused by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of masterminding a failed coup on July 15, 2016 and is labeled a “terrorist organization,” although the movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
