Who killed Bahriye Üçok?

The perpetrators of political assassinations do not consist of a single person. Even though there are those who pull the trigger, throw the bomb, or carry the weapon, those murders are committed collectively.

Behind a death sentence issued against a person, whether ideological or religious, there are assessments, provocations, speeches, and discourses that target them and lead to their death. In this respect, perpetrators never come to the crime scene alone. They are accompanied by the ideas they are fed by, the claims they uphold, the crowds they incite, and other accomplices.

In this sense, the perpetrator of Bahriye Üçok, who was murdered 34 years ago on October 6, 1990, with a bomb sent to her home, is not just Ferhan Özmen, who prepared the bomb. Ferhan Özmen is merely the visible face of that murder. For if Bahriye Üçok was murdered by someone she did not even know, it means there are many more perpetrators we do not know.

To know those perpetrators, we need to look back at Bahriye Üçok a little. When she began her duty at the Ankara University Faculty of Divinity in 1953, we recognized her as Turkey's first female theologian. Üçok was a figure who drew attention from the very first days due to the views she defended regarding both theology and current politics.

Üçok was saying that covering up is not mandatory in Islam, and similarly, that the same rule applies to fasting. Her views were not limited to these, of course. For example, she stated that there is no such title as "cleric" or a marriage practice called "religious marriage" in the Islamic faith. Naturally, she explained all of this in the light of verses and hadiths, grounding her views.

On the other hand, even in those years, she was expressing that İmam Hatip schools were being engaged in politics and that these schools were contrary to the principle of the unification of education. If they were moving away from their purpose, there was a problem with the intentions. Ultimately, the stance that needed to be taken against these schools should have been shown through the principle of secularism.

Üçok also firmly criticized the Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs), stating in her writings with examples that the Diyanet was occasionally engaging in "sharia" propaganda and making statements contrary to secularism. Moreover, according to Üçok, the Diyanet was producing publications that were mind-bogglingly archaic.

On the other hand, Bahriye Üçok's views were, of course, not limited to criticisms. She had also explained that Islam adopted a revolutionary approach regarding both human rights and women's rights. For with Islam, women were no longer "property," became individuals, and gained various rights. "However," says Üçok, "due to the attitudes of those who misunderstood and taught it incorrectly over centuries, the Muslim woman had to live in her own home for centuries having lost her most natural rights." At this point, one of the two names Üçok commemorates with respect is the Prophet of Islam, and the other is Atatürk.

Her words on the subject are exactly as follows:

"If the Turkish mother had not raised a genius son like Atatürk, who I believe has no equal born in world history, the Turkish woman would still be struggling under the crushing pressure of that old, wrong behavior, without having reached the joy of the rights granted to women by Islam and its graceful prophet."

At this exact point, we can return to the question in our title: We had asked, "Who killed Üçok?"

Üçok was killed by those who see speaking in the name of Islam as their own monopoly, and furthermore, by those who evaluate libertarian and critical perspectives with words like "perversion" and "heresy." Üçok was killed by those who, from yesterday to today, see themselves as guardians of religion and, like the inquisition, interrogate people, carry them to headlines, target them, and develop lynching discourse in various environments. Üçok was killed by those who do not want to let women breathe and who want to create a male-dominated "religious" world with their patriarchal mentality. In total, she was killed by those who carried wood to this fire and poured gasoline on it with their thoughts and words.

Bahriye Üçok was in favor of a secular, democratic, social state of law. She was a theologian and also a politician. As we stated above, both Atatürk and the Prophet were very valuable names to her. She believed in her religion with all her heart and described her faith as revolutionary. Despite all this, Üçok was murdered in the name of religion by those who call themselves Muslims.

Bahriye Üçok's daughter, Kumru Üçok, says to her mother when she brings the book-rigged package from the courier to the house, "I brought your bomb, I left it on the table." Because the mother and daughter had been under threat for months. Subsequently, the heinous event occurs, everywhere is filled with blood, and there are pieces torn from her body on the ground.

People do not easily leave their hearts, souls, and belongings in one place, and sharp separations do not happen easily. But if they do happen, one needs to look back at the past. And so, Üçok's body lying on the ground and those pieces torn from her body scream this painful truth to us.