Social Madness and the Manifestation of Justice

For the past few days, we have been talking about two young women who were brutally murdered. Due to the misinformation circulating on social media, the details of the incident are constantly changing. At first, the issue of drugs came to the fore, and then we began to discuss the concept of "incel" and its communities, which are characterized by misogyny. Regardless of the reason, we watched a mother's cry in front of her daughter's severed head. Yet, we had not even moved past the Narin Güran murder in Diyarbakır, nor had we understood the background of that crime. On the other hand, unfortunately, the murders in Fatih shook the agenda so much that we could not properly discuss the woman who was sexually assaulted in the middle of the street in Beyoğlu just a few days ago, or the incident itself.

Everyone has started talking about a social madness. There may be some truth to this. After all, we are talking about many different events that erupted simultaneously and many problems that occupy our agenda. But it must also be emphasized: When it comes to women, what we call social madness corresponds, if not entirely, at least in part, to the failure of justice to manifest. In other words, we know that the reason why the ever-increasing violence and brutality against women is reflected so recklessly is that the perpetrators often go unpunished. There are many examples... For instance, when a woman is murdered by her ex-husband, we usually learn that she had filed multiple complaints against him, but that little was done about it. We read that a murderer who killed his girlfriend benefited from a "good conduct" reduction simply because he wore a suit and tie during the trial. Or we see that someone who attempted rape was released after being taken into custody, and that social media pressure has become a functional mechanism of justice to ensure they are taken back into custody. We are also experiencing day by day that the sentence execution reductions and amnesties in our justice system have no function other than pushing individuals toward new crimes. We understand this even more when women are the subject. Because, getting out of prison and shooting an (ex-)spouse has ceased to be news that surprises us. 

All women have turned "Implement Law 6284" into a slogan because the law is not being applied. The "Istanbul Convention," which Turkey is no longer officially a part of, was debated in such inconceivable ways that the public almost coded the convention as a text of "immorality." Yet, the official title of the text, which is called the Istanbul Convention because it was signed in Istanbul, was "The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence." Furthermore, what we call morality originally meant the forms of behavior that individuals are obliged to follow within a society. Does our withdrawal from the convention not present a contradiction when viewed from this perspective? According to some, it does not. Because there is a false perception in our society that both morality and justice contain only conservative and religious elements. Indeed, for the past few days, that is, after the events took place, there were those who attributed the blame not to the failure of justice to manifest, but to the secular legal system, and who argued that these events should open the door for a Sharia-based legal system...

The struggle for women in Turkey does not end, and it will not end. This will not always be against murder, violence, or sexual assault. While women are facing a justice problem called social madness on one hand, they are also facing a system on the other where they receive directives even on how they should give birth. During the days when two murder cases and one attempted sexual assault occurred, the Ministry of Health's public service announcement was further alienating women based on their method of birth. In short: If you have a C-section, you are both disconnected from your baby and a failure. In summary, even when we are not dead and are safe, and even, fortunately for the state and a segment of society, when we give birth, our job is quite difficult...