The Turkish branch of Amnesty International is trying to set up a safe-house style of womens shelter in Beşiktaş:

Today's Zaman article

I am honestly amazed by the large number of readers ZAMAN has, among our members here.

I never read ZAMAN. Am I missing something?

I love Amnesty International...

Apart from trying to get pardons for all kinds of criminals, they also support LGBT Movement throughout the world. Crime and LGBT should be free and encouraged, no?

They remind me of Frankists, in history !

Women's shelters have been proved to save thousands of women (and children's) lives. For some women, it is their only hope, as they live in fear of their abusive husbands. It is very good news that Amnesty International are doing this.

Anybody in mischief, should have a respectable face too....
Makes their lives easier...

Eskimo Proverb

Are you calling my Frankists, strange?

Actually Alpha, I am far more interested in your view on a Women's Refuge opening in Besiktas.

I notice you have made no comment on it so far.

I found the article fascinating, not just because I agree with the topic of women's shelters (Mor Çatı has been doing a wonderful work here formany many years) but also:

a) It is in Todays Zaman - which as Alpha F points out is a newspaper published by a more religious media group

and

b) some fascianting quotes e.g.:

In just three hours, around 300 signatures were collected. ..Several women expressed their surprise at seeing male activists engaged in the topic. “It is very nice that men also show their support for the issue,” said Zeynep, 56.

“It is mostly older women who are aware of the problem,” says AI-Turkey member Özlem Çolak (24), adding that headscarved women in particular are very open to discussing the situation. “They always listen and often sign,” she said. “The younger women, though, often wave it off and do not take the issue seriously.”

Interestingly, some women refused to sign but accepted a gift the activists had prepared: a small hand mirror on which the phone number of a women’s helpline, Mor Çatı, was written.

I don't know about poor AlphaF's wife, but I CERTAINLY need a refuge from him from time to time

an appeal started in 2004:


Worldwide Appeal
TURKEY: Women need shelters

Women in Istanbul call for shelters
Women in protest in Istanbul that they need "shelters not graves" © Private

Important

Please read our letter writing guide before writing to any of the addresses below.
Reminder

AI members should not send appeals to the authorities of their own countries.

Appeal status: Active
Appeal started: July 2004

“Everyone sends women who have experienced violence to us. Everyone. The government, the police, everyone. We don’t have the facilities to meet the demand.”
A worker at a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Turkey speaking to AI

At least a third of all women in Turkey are estimated to experience physical violence within their families. Women should not face this violence unsupported. The state has a duty to protect women from violence committed not only by agents of the state but also by private individuals and groups.

The first step in the protection of women should be the Family Protection Law, which would distance perpetrators and allow women to stay in their own homes. However, it is recognized that in some emergency situations this is insufficient to protect women, and for such situations shelters are needed.

It is estimated that there are only 14 shelters and 19 community-based services to support women experiencing violence at home for a population of 70 million. Two independently run shelters providing invaluable services to women escaping violence and to community education, including an effective police education campaign, were closed in 1997 and 1999 due to lack of funding.

The role of women’s rights activists is crucial to ensure that at least a small proportion of women obtain protection. Women’s organizations in Turkey believe that such centres should be run independently of the government. “We have reports that government-run women’s shelters are turning away women who do not have their identity cards with them,” said a representative. “When you are running away from a violent home, do you think to take your identity card?” Government-run shelters have been criticized for their failures to accept women who fall into particular categories – for example, prostitutes, women with health problems and women who are pregnant.

Please write, calling on the authorities to help protect women by funding a sufficient number of appropriate shelters for women in collaboration with NGOs experienced in working to protect women from violence.

Send appeals to:
Prime Minister of Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Office of the Prime Minister
Basbakanlik
06573 Ankara
Turkey

E-mail: receptayyip.erdogan@basbakanlik.gov.tr

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/ce157/ce15720060706en03850390.pdf
http://www.amnesty.ca/take_action/actions/turkey_legislation.php
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR440242004?open&of=ENG-373
Alpha_F please do not make yourself rideculous about frankists!What do you know about them???!!!According to them women rigth was to bear children and do not protest against domestic violence!Still in Spain there are example of wives battery and "Macho"attitude"but thanks evolution,women grew up enough to fight for their rights!Why men still tend to treat women worse than domestic animals in some countries?Is it bcs women.children and fish do not have voice?just insignificant creatures?
damn it,both sexes were created equal,so far we do not know what God's sex is as according to the Bible god said"I am what I am"brain teaser.isn't it???????
why,why.why women have to be submissive and suffer?????

Where do you girls get such a weird idea that AlphaF can have anything, ANYTHING, against welfare of women kind?

If no one wants to discuss Amnesty International, LGBT Movement, and Frankists....I do not mind !

Alpha F or Omega or all greek alphabet,I do not mind discuss frankists with you)))))

weird!yesterday I watched Rambo 3 ..again...and the end of the film...in the homage of afghan nation)))Irony!!!Russians left=Americans still!!!Rambo!Where r u????

while frankists were looking at Napoleon as a potential messiah somewhere in the nearby hassids considered his expansion the attack of gog and magog )))))))))

LGBT beats me

goodnight TC )))

Frankists were jolly and crafty fellows, in the philosophy they preached.

Lesbian
Gay
Bisexual
Transexual

LGBT

looks like i have to emit an opinion on hermafrodits.

You can hardly speculate on Amnesty International's LGBT Movement, or two priests marriying or fights to legalize marriage between members of the same sex...etc., unless you are familiar with Frankists.

Say No to Violence Against Women

Abuse is not always physical, but can also be mental.

how they lift a woman!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/7107379.stm

Iran: Use of the word women 'banned from state TV'

Tehran, 29 Nov. (AKI) - The word 'women' must now be replaced on Iranian state television by 'family', reformist Norouz news agency reports.

In programmes broadcast throughout the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women last Sunday, Iranian state TV used the world family instead.

In recent weeks, Iran's Centre for the Participation of Women changed its name to the Centre for Family Matters.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/CultureAndMedia/?id=1.0.1613494695

Yet another ‘honour killing’ in Pakistan

Islamabad: A girl in Pakistan's Punjab province became victim of an 'honour killing' when she was axed to death by her father and close relatives for allegedly having an affair with a boy from her locality.

The girl was killed after her father, Farooq Khan Baloch, became suspicious that his daughter was having an affair with Amjad, a youngster in Jhang tehsil in Punjab province. Seeing them together, Farooq with relatives Sher Khan, Asghar Khan and Riaz Khan, axed the girl to death, while the boy managed to escape, The Dawn newspaper reported on Thursday.

The police have registered a case. It said that 'honour killings' are widespread among rural Muslim tribes in Pakistan where the victims are mostly female.

The spilling of blood under the garb of honour is mostly at the behest of close family members with the aim of undoing the perceived loss of wider family status owing to the actions of the victim.

Ghazala, a woman in the Punjab province's Joharabad, was set on fire by her brother on January 6, 1999. She was murdered because her family suspected her of having an illicit relationship with a neighbour.

Women in Pakistan face death by shooting, burning or killing with axes if they are deemed to have brought shame on the family. They are killed for supposed illicit relationships, for marrying men of their choice, for divorcing husbands. They are even murdered by their kin if they are raped as they are thereby deemed to have brought shame on their family.

Often, the truth of the suspicion does not matter; merely the allegation is enough to bring dishonour on the family and therefore justifies the slaying.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14568914

"In 2004, the European Commission noted in a recommendation on Turkey’s accession to the EU that violence and discrimination against women, including honor killings, is a major problem in Turkey.[9] A study from 2003 by Istanbul Bilgi University estimated that 31.5 % of Turkish women were beaten by their husbands, while another study from 2000 estimated that 97% of women experience psychological and physical domestic abuse.[10]"

United Nations Development Fund for Women - Turkey

Iran is a rich country with enermous energy resources, a long history and a versatile geography. In other words, they have everything to exist as a peaceful and an affluent nation.

By comparison, Turkey having depleted all its human/economic resources at a series of wars is not so rich as Iran.

Many Iranians I know are exremely sly and tactful people. They usually have a tendency towards excelling in sophisticated matters. Nearly half of the population in Iran is composed of Azeri Turks. You could communicate to most Iranians in Turkish therefore.

Thse people closely monitor the developments in European countries and Turkey. When they visit Turkey they quickly adapt to the life here. I've seen Iranian girls enjoying themselves in discos and bars just like a Western girl would.

I also hear that there is a behind the doors life in Iran which is risky but very colorful too. Some of those veiled women are said to convert themselves into party girls once the they escape from the streets.

What can you do when you know a mullah will burn your ass ?

alameda reported on me vai vai!

Sadly Jenny got the butt....I got the brains

What are you talking about exactly?

If Alameda, Femme, Teaschip and all the others can find a way to at least communicate with one another that will indeed be something for each one of those individuals to be proud of...

In the fall of 2006, women's rights groups in Iran launched the One Million Signatures for Equality campaign with the aim of gathering one million signatures demanding the repeal of Iranian laws that are discriminatory towards women. This campaign was born out of a peaceful rally of hundreds of Iranians in Tehran on June 12, 2006, which was violently broken up by police.

Delaram Ali is one of several activists who have been criminally charged for participating in the June 2006 rally (see Human Rights First alert here). Ms. Ali, a 24-year-old sociology student and active member of the campaign, was sentenced in July 2007 to two years and ten months in prison, as well as 10 lashes. On November 4, 2007, she was told that her appeals against conviction had been exhausted and that she should report to prison for the sentence to be carried out. After seven leading human rights organizations around the world made a statement condemning the harsh sentence, the sentence was stayed; as of last week, however, the stay has expired and the sentence could be implemented at any time.

you can read the rest of the story here:

Drop Charges Against Iranian Women's Rights Activists

Doesn't that make you appreciate the freedom you have in your country?

Cacik - a good way to get involved would be finding a UNIFEM chapter in your region and working with them.

Look at this brave woman: Response to claim that women should not appear on TV (Saudi Arabia)

I don't think they are afraid of anything, they just enjoy the absolute freedom and power they have. They can do whatever they want, while their wifes are locked up at home cooking dinner and taking care of kids.

It just BURNS ME UP! What arrogance..What ABSOLUTE ARROGANCE of these men!!

There is only one "girleegirl" in this group. The number of "manleegirls" is amazingly high.

God bless our only girleegirl !

Please dont insult "girleegirl" - she is far too clever for you. Don't you worry yourself about us, Alpha. A man of your insecurities and arrogance finds it impossible to imagine clever, smart, independent women can be beautiful or sexy I can assure you there is nothing "manly" about me.

I think it's best that you stick to women who laugh and giggle at your misogynist comments - a complete air-head is the only type of woman who will be able to make you feel intelligent, clever and unthreatened.

I love the way you always make such comments like this after ANY post about EQUALITY for women.

Boy !... That was funny ....

I am not a racist. I am a nationalist.

You just dont know the difference, that is all! )))))))))))

Amnesty International
2004 – Nebahat Akkoc, Turkey
A Kurdish teacher from Diyarbakir in Eastern Turkey, Ms Akkoc responded to her own experience of political and sexual abuse, including the murder of her husband and her arrest and torture, by founding the organization Ka-Mer (Women's Center) to advance women's rights in southeast Anatolia, Turkey. Today there are branches of Ka-Mer in five other Anatolian cities providing legal and psychological counseling for abused women.Recently Ka-Mer is offerring crisis line help, direct assistance, and intervention for women and family members impacted by Honor Killings.

I love strong women like her. Both thumbs up!

not sure this is completely relevant to the post but...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE4D81E3FF93AA35752C1A965958260

oh and the same story in the turkish paper also mentioned that she pinned the thing above her sons bed as a warning about mistreating your wife or something like that.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/dunya/8437471.asp?gid=229&sz=67407

let it be a lesson ...

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a remote area of Balochistan province, that five women were buried alive, allegedly by the younger brother of Mr. Sadiq Umrani, the provincial minister and a prominent leader of the Pakistan People´s Party, the ruling party. However, police have still not arrested the perpetrators after one month of the incident.