President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to withdraw Turkey from a treaty to combat violence against women may have caused a shock wave, some conservative feminist associations have greeted it with “understanding”.
This is particularly the case of the Association Femmes et Démocratie (KADEM) whose vice-president is none other than the youngest daughter of the Turkish president, Sumeyye Erdogan.
The argument put forward by the presidency to justify this withdrawal has indeed found an echo with certain conservative organizations such as KADEM: to preserve family values in the face of those who seek to “normalize homosexuality” in the name of the abandoned treaty, which more generally prohibits any discrimination based on “gender”.
Known as the Istanbul Convention, this 2011 Council of Europe treaty obliges governments to pass legislation cracking down on domestic violence and similar abuses, including marital rape and female genital mutilation.
Its abandonment by Turkey was announced in a decree issued by Mr. Erdogan on the night of March 19 to 20.
This withdrawal, decided at a time when femicides have been on the rise for a decade in Turkey, aroused the anger of women’s rights organizations and critics from the European Union, Washington and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. UN human rights.
“Neither for nor against”
But for Derya Yanik, lawyer and member of the board of directors of KADEM, the association made by certain circles between the convention and the defense of LGBT rights had become “a burden difficult to bear” in a largely conservative country.
“From our point of view, the Istanbul Convention was an instrument to combat violence against women. But some groups have associated it with LGBT rights. This is one of the factors that affected the treaty, ”says Mme Yanik to AFP.
If his words sound like a defense of the justifications put forward by Ankara, Mr.me Yanik would like to point out that KADEM is “neither for nor against” the Istanbul Convention.
She argues that Turkey already has legislation to protect women, which she says makes the treaty less essential.
“It was claimed that if the Istanbul Convention was withdrawn, there would be no more means to protect women. But this is not the case, ”says the lawyer.
Taking up the arguments of the Turkish authorities, Mr.me Yanik considers that the treaty “imposed” the defense of LGBT people as “the new normal”.
“We are killed, veiled or not”
The decision of the Turkish head of state has sparked protests across Turkey by women who feel threatened by the abandonment of the treaty in a country where the patriarchal mentality is still predominant.
More than 300 women were killed last year in Turkey, according to the platform “We will stop feminicides”.
About 38% of women in Turkey said they had been victims of domestic violence at least once, according to data from the World Health Organization, while the rate is around 25% for Europe.
A veiled woman who took part in one of the protests in a conservative Istanbul neighborhood, Aysel Ozbey, 43, believes Turkey’s withdrawal from the treaty is “a coup against women” by Erdogan.
“We are killed regardless of our language, our religion or our race, or whether we are conservative or not, whether we wear the veil or not,” she says.
“No moral lessons”
For Rumeysa Camdereli, founder of “Havle”, a group that presents itself as feminist and Muslim, to claim that the Istanbul Convention requires Turkey to accept the LGBT lifestyle is ridiculous.
“Some people think people will become gay after reading the treaty. It’s not even an argument worth answering, ”she laughs.
For meme Camdereli, women in Turkey need “legal protections, not moral lessons”.
According to women’s rights activists, existing laws are poorly enforced by law enforcement and justice in Turkey, thus fueling a culture of impunity for perpetrators.
Mme Camdereli, however, refuses to fall into “despair” and remains convinced that the struggle must be continued.
“It is male violence that destroys the family, not the treaty,” she says.