for Ozgecan Aslan and all victims of gender violence
murat g
On February 11, a 20 year old woman, Ozgecan Aslan, was reported missing in Mersin. Two days later, her body was found burnt by the bus driver with the help of his own father and his friend. This tragic, inhumane, and maddeningly routine murder isn’t the first and won’t be the last. Only within the last year, almost 300 women were murdered by men in Turkey according to the official reports besides thousands of incidents of rape, domestic violence, harrassment and constraint. It is no surprise that every day, and every day, we turn our deaf ears and blind eyes and muted tongues to those unreported incidents of violence not to mention hundreds of LGBT individuals who have been murdered, forced to commit suicide, and exposed to legal negligence.
Why? No, it wasn’t that Turkey is an increasingly conservative country although Islamist newspapers and journalists immediately reacted that she died because of “secular freedom of sex” and “immoral Western values”. No, it wasn’t also that Turkey is a land of repressed sexuality although people in Turkey “proudly” raise the flag of being number one google searchers of child porn and rape porn. No, it wasn’t that women were socially isolated more than ever for the last couple of years despite that ministers of the government advised women to be career-wise by staying at home and raising their children (let alone that sickening warning that chaste women shouldn’t laugh in public). No, it wasn’t that women and LGBT individuals were politically suppressed and left without an option although the leader of “New Turkey” pointed his fingers at feminists and decreed that men and women can’t be equal (in a meeting organized by a pro-government women’s organization crazily applauded by women) and at LGBT people (the first case he took to the court as the president of Turkey was against a queer activist). And yes, it was because patriarchy and masculine violence have secured their throne in Turkey every passing year thanks to the smothering discourse created and promoted by high officers and politicians in Turkey although some hillariously hailed the president as the revolutionary who tore down the towers of hegemonic masculinity. And yes, it was because masculine violence is a virus and just like a virus, it seems insurmountable at first, eats up our joy and feeds upon our silence and fear and offsprings of violence need no explanation ofttimes.
Yet, we know that it’s not only about Turkey and its deafening daily politics that encourages violence against diversity and plurality. Every year, around 2500 brides are being burnt in their kitchens in India so grooms don’t have to pay dowries. Just recently, Nigerian Boko Haram kidnapped more than 300 school girls in serial incidents of kidnapping since they thought girls should not go to schools and instead be married at earlier ages. Only a few of them were found raped and brutally beaten down. Human Rights Watch reported that Russian authorities “effectively legalized discrimination against LGBT people” according to CNN. Rape has been used as a systematic weapon of mass destruction against women for many years by Serbian, Rwandan, Chilean, and American soldiers. Mass media nestles down with the pornography of violence and victims of violence can’t be heard unless they come up with an “interesting news story” squeezed between two coming up nexts. Violence against women and LGBT people is on the rise globally and gendercide has never looked so frightening and inequality between genders so crushing.
So, what do we want? We want no revenge for sure. We know that any form of violence is deliberately masculine and those who live by the sword die by the sword. We want to stop violence in any form no matter who exercises for what reason. We want to raise our voices, men and women and LGBT altogether, against gendered violence and negligence. We want to unite and strenghten our ties with our siblings so that noone can hurt anyone of us any longer. We want to maintain that we, as people of the Initiative of Critical Studies of Masculinities, are here to inspire and to fight against any form of gendered inequality and discrimination.
Murat Goc
on behalf of Initiative of Critical Studies of Masculinities