Domestic Violence in Turkey Turkey has passed strong laws to protect women from abuse, but the failure of police, prosecutors, and other officials to enforce these laws leaves many women in dangerous, even life-threatening, situations.
In interviews with Human Rights Watch, women throughout Turkey described violence inflicted by husbands, in-laws, and other family members. We documented rapes, stabbings, and beatings with hammers, sticks, or hoses. We interviewed women who were locked up with animals, starved, injected with poison, or kicked in the stomach while pregnant.
According to a study by a leading Turkish university, 42 percent of women in Turkey have experienced such physical or sexual violence at the hands of their husband or partner.
Turkey’s laws are designed to protect women by requiring domestic abusers to vacate the home, stay away from the victim and their children, and stop contacting the victim. Laws also require the establishment of shelters for abused women.
But many women said that police officers mocked them and sent them home to their abusers. There are not enough shelters, and some have lax security. And unmarried or divorced women are excluded from the system’s protections.
Turkey’s officials need to make the system exemplary in practice, not just on paper.
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