Everyone looked at the Zeytinburnu shore, but no one saw

A woman's past is her mother, her present is herself, and her future is her daughter.

A young mother, abandoned by her past, wandered from door to door for days with her daughter—who was being abused and was in danger—in her arms. With a calm and composed expression, afraid to show her face, without screaming, without raising her voice, and holding her child's hand tightly, she pleaded: “We are being subjected to violence and rape, we are under threat, please help us.”

Her voice echoed across all of Turkey…

But no one heard.

“I was forced into marriage, I was subjected to torture, I was raped. My child was also raped by her father. My child is not healthy, I am not healthy. We are poor, we are helpless. They will kill us. Please help us. Our complaints yield no results, please hear our voice,” she said!

Everyone looked at them…

But no one saw…

In her final words, she said she was certain they would not be alive in a few days.

“Do not believe that we committed suicide, seek justice for us, shed light on our murder,”

she said, leaving a dark testament to all of humanity.

When we last saw this young woman—who was not protected by the country she lived in or her family, and whose life was wasted by torture, cult houses, rape, and violence—in the security camera footage, walking through dark streets with her child in her arms, holding her tightly, she had already been murdered along with her child.

On the Zeytinburnu shore!

On the Zeytinburnu shore, while they should have been feeding seagulls with bread rolls in the first sun of spring with her daughter, chirping with happy laughter and breathing under the blue dome; they were erased from the face of the earth forever, covering themselves with the pitch-black night on the edge of a dark sea...

It is a situation that stops one's mind and intellect with every word and every moment; how violent, how tragic, and how irreversible. This incident is not an ordinary case.

On the contrary, it is a cautionary turning point that requires all system components, regardless of their ideas or thoughts, to act together.

After such a tragedy, one's mind inevitably begins to consider other possibilities. What would have happened if this cry for help had been heard in another country?

For example, what would have happened if a woman in Germany had applied to the police, stating that she lived in a closed and radical religious environment, that she and her child were being sexually abused, and that they were being threatened with death?

First of all, state institutions would have evaluated this as an alarming situation. Because it is known that women and children in religious cults are frequently subjected to such violence, but many women do not have the courage to apply to state institutions.

Therefore, the matter would be handled directly as a serious crime and a child safety issue, and the case would be treated with special sensitivity to provide courage to people in similar situations.

First, a criminal investigation would be immediately launched by the police, and the prosecutor's office would be involved in the process. Since a child is involved, the Jugendamt (Youth Welfare Office) would step in, and the child's safety would be assessed as an emergency. At the same time, protective measures would be implemented for the safety of the mother and child. These measures would include steps such as removing the attacker, a restraining order, providing a safe shelter, or, if necessary, secretly relocating the mother and child to another city.

In such a case, where it is determined that the mother and child have suffered severe physical and psychological damage, the victims would be placed in protection programs where their identities and addresses are kept confidential. Because the state's primary duty is not only to investigate crimes but also to protect people in danger in advance.

Setting aside the legal dimension of the incident, which would be carried out with justice by judicial institutions and law enforcement...

If this mother and her little daughter had been taken to a safe place during those days when they asked for help; if their identities had been hidden and they had been enabled to start their lives over in another city, could we be talking about a completely different story today?

Perhaps today, we would be talking about how young women and little girls born into radical cults, who are left uneducated, unskilled, and helpless under pressure, could be saved. The stories of Hifa and her mother's salvation would have turned into a story of hope for women and girls in the same situation.

We would be discussing what new aid channels the state should create to reach these people, and what other ways could be found to reach women and children living inside these closed worlds.

This issue is not about faith. It is about the fact that raising a human being from the moment they are born to obey and live like a slave is incompatible with human dignity. Because it is extremely difficult for a young woman who has no education, no profession, no freedom of travel, no financial power, and who has been raised under intense psychological pressure to obey, to show the will to leave this system on her own.

For this reason, it is necessary to define the issue as an open crime and to establish emergency aid channels so that these women and girls, whose numbers we do not even know, can be saved.

There are not just shadow silhouettes behind the black fabrics and veils we see on the roads and pass by; there are young women and little girls living behind those covers, whom the whole society ignores.

Perhaps we are still far from talking about this issue today, but could Hifa and her mother, who washed up on the shore as two cries for help at the cost of their lives while trying to escape from this dark sea, have brought us the voices of exactly these women and girls?

The incident, as it occurred, may have of course caused other women in the same situation inside to be even more afraid and close themselves off. Perhaps the idea of how terrible the system that keeps them inside is has deepened even further.

For this reason, the tragic loss of Hifa and her mother should create a powerful alarm effect for institutions; accessible, safe, and protected aid channels should be opened for young women and their children in the same or similar situations.

It is often not possible to reach these women directly by entering these structures. Therefore, what is needed is the establishment of an aid system under state guarantee and the protection of law enforcement, where women in difficult situations can access the assurance of survival, receive rehabilitation, and re-adapt to their lives.

Because there is no other way for women and girls waiting to be saved inside to be brought out quietly and without harm.

Image: Created using AI, inspired by Doha el-Adl's cartoon.