Özgecan Aslan (22 October 1995 – 11 February 2015)

On Wednesday, February the 11^th twenty year old Ozgecan Aslan was burnt and beaten to death with an iron bar after an attempted rape in Turkey. It has been reported that minibus driver Suphi Altindoken had killed and mutilated her body after she pepper-sprayed him. He has been arrested alongside his father and a friend.

Gone, a young girl with a bright future.

Case like this is very common in Turkey. The number of sexual harassment and violence in the country is shocking. In 2014, 56% of the 281 women murdered in the country were killed by a husband or partner. The number of deaths has seen an increase in the previous year by 31%.

 The case has sparked many street protests in Ankara, Istanbul and Mersin. A week ago, about 15,000 protestors took to the streets to march near Cag University, where she was a psychology student. It also caused an uproar on social media, women took to twitter to share their own stories of sexual harassment and violence. Not only that, the hashtags #Ozgecanicinsiyahgiy (Wear black for Ozgecan) and #Ozgecanicinminietekgiy (wear a miniskirt for Ozgecan) began to trend as a form of protest. Women posted selfies while wearing black clothes, while men in Turkey and Azerbaijan tweeted images of themselves wearing a skirt as a symbol of solidarity.

 “If a miniskirt is responsible for everything, if wearing a miniskirt means immorality and unchastity, if a woman who wears a miniskirt is sending an invitation about what will happen to her, then we are also sending an invitation!”, wrote one protestor on Facebook  in regards to the campaign. http://www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/rest-in-peace-ozgecan-aslan#.wfQ0lKZqa2

For those who are thinking - what good does protesting do to help - it helps, alot. To live in a country where human rights and freedom of speech is limited, it helps to rise your voice to be heard, even if its through protesting. 

This case is a political issue that represents the fear women live with in Turkey. The constant fear that has been put in place by the Turkish president Erdogan who believes that men & women are not equal so therefore shouldn’t be treated equally. “What women need is to be able to be equivalent, rather than equal” he said last November, while addressing the Women & Justice Summit in Istanbul, an international conference hosted by the Women & Democracy Association, a Turkish NGO.

Everybody that knows me or reads my blog knows my problem against Erdogan, for those that don’t, well I hate the man. I hate his political views on gender equality and the fact that he has done no good for women’s rights.  Many times he has stated that he sees women no more than “mothers”, he refuses to accept that men and women might be different biologically but nevertheless women deserve equal rights & opportunities. For me it is obvious to see that Erdogan’s attitude and disregard of gender equality plays a huge part in the increase of sex crimes and violence against women in Turkey over the recent years.

Even though Erdogan’s hate crime against women is clear, it is time for him to take domestic violence and sex crimes seriously. It is time for him to do more than tweet the words “the responsible ones deserve the heaviest punishment”. It is time for him to put his foot down and protect all women. It is time for him to honour Aslan and bring a different outcome to the same sad story.

I just hope in the memory of Aslan the case be a turning point for all women in Turkey.

Image credits - http://image.cdn.haber7.com//haber/haber7/photos/ozgecan_aslan_nasil_ve_neden_olduruldu_1423917510_5239.jpg

-http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article10047082.ece/alternates/w460/AN63004367epaselect%20epa0461.jpg

https://twitter.com/Guy_Moussi/status/567337134605205505/photo/1http://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.2247790.1424742604!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/24/turkeys-president-recep-tayyip-erdogan-women-not-equal-men