Declared the 'Year of the Family' while women are being murdered

12punto.com.tr SİNEM NAZLI DEMİR

THE FAMILY IS SACRALIZED WHILE THE DEATH TOLL GROWS

The Ministry of Interior's data can no longer remain silent: violence against women in Turkey is steadily increasing. Women's organizations have been fighting this for years by keeping a tally. It is precisely under these conditions that the AKP has declared 2025 the 'Year of the Family.' Nuray Yenil clearly expresses this hypocrisy:

'While the AKP was declaring 2025 the year of the family, women's organizations were busy keeping a tally of murdered women. 394 women were murdered in 2024. Under the AKP government that declared the year of the family, more than half of the murdered women were killed by the men they were married to or by men they were divorced from.'

The ideological foundations of this 'family' structure, in which women are being murdered, are quite clear in the government's mind:

'We also need to look at the family structure that the AKP is trying to sacralize. They talk about a monolithic, traditional family structure and are actually sacralizing it. According to their Islamic ideology, the AKP government understands a family institution where the woman is obedient, bears many children, and acts according to the motto 'dirty laundry is washed at home' even if she is subjected to violence.'

OFFICIAL DATA ALSO CONFIRMS THE VIOLENCE

Nuray Yenil emphasizes that women are left unequal and insecure within the home, and that violence is compounded in this environment. Moreover, it is not just women's organizations that acknowledge this reality anymore, but the state itself:

'They do not want this to change. It is a fact that violence against women has increased throughout the AKP's time in power. This is not just stated by the data from women's organizations; official institutions, which began publishing data only after great insistence, also say this. The Ministry of Interior has also admitted with its own data that violence is increasing.'

But instead of solutions, pressure is coming:

'Instead of developing policies aimed at preventing violence against women, they have done the exact opposite and signed off on policies that reinforce women's unequal position within the family. The cancellation of the Istanbul Convention is the greatest proof of this. When the convention was being cancelled, they developed a narrative like 'it is not suitable for the Turkish family structure, it damages the family institution.''

CHEAP LABOR FOR CAPITAL, OBEDIENCE FOR SOCIETY

Behind the government's focus on the family lies not only ideology but also economic interests. Yenil's statements reveal the neoliberal authoritarian policy developed around the demographic crisis:

'There are efforts to design society through an emphasis on the family starting from 2027. In 2027, they established a commission to investigate divorces, saying 'divorce rates are increasing in Turkey,' and published reports. Birth rates are falling, marriage ages are rising, and the age of having children is increasing. There is such a reality, of course. But why is the AKP worried about this? I think there are several reasons. They have stated that Turkey's dynamic population is decreasing and the need for labor is gradually increasing. There are 11 million unemployed people in Turkey. There is a policy here that looks after capital's need for cheap labor. They need a young population based on this equation. The AKP has carried out many administrative transformations, but they are facing great resistance in transforming society, and they want to break this resistance. Therefore, they saw women as one of the points where they could break this resistance, as the weaker segment of society, and this process has shown that they were wrong.'

NEW CONSTITUTION: A BREAKING POINT FOR WOMEN

One of Nuray Yenil's warnings concerns the upcoming new constitution initiatives. She says that women should face this process not just as spectators, but as active fighters:

'New constitution discussions will come to the agenda again, and this will be a very critical turning point for Turkey. After all, there is a 20-year government in place, and it is clear where it is taking Turkey. The new constitution will not be very different from this. It will mean the institutionalization of the new regime. I think it is important for women to be much more organized against the new constitution initiatives.'

CONCLUSION: A CALL TO RESISTANCE, NOT OBEDIENCE

The year 2025 has been declared the 'Year of the Family' by the government. However, women are still being murdered on the streets, in workplaces, and in their homes. This declaration cannot cover up the patriarchal domination directed at women's bodies and lives. As Nuray Yenil also points out, the government's family policies are actually a tool to force a society into obedience. The response women will give to this is clear: to organize more, to fight more.