Demonstrations in Turkey Against Femicide as Violence Against Women Rises

Hundreds of people are calling for justice for femicide victims in Turkey after a string of murders of women and girls.

Transcript

00:00Calling for change. Hundreds of people in Turkey have taken to the streets of Istanbul

00:07to protest violence against women. Demonstrations have sprung up around the country for over

00:13a week since the double murder of two women and the suicide of a male suspect who had

00:18been under investigation. Nearly 300 women have been killed in Turkey so far this year.

00:24The mother of one such victim demanded the state take responsibility.

00:47Many of the protesters blame conservative President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic-based

00:52AK Party. In 2021, he removed the country from an international treaty to prevent gender-based

00:59violence. It's an issue gaining attention worldwide. According to the UN, 2022 saw the

01:05highest number of femicides around the world in two decades, with nearly 89,000 women and

01:11girls killed. That's despite the UN saying overall homicide figures were down.

01:18In India, millions of doctors went on strike for over a month after a female colleague

01:25was raped and killed in Kolkata. In Kenya, calls for justice after a spate of killings

01:33in January. A 2022 UN report found Africa had the most killings of women by a partner

01:38or family member than anywhere else on earth. The report says women globally are most likely

01:44to be killed by the people closest to them. And until justice is served, the worldwide

01:50fight will continue for accountability and change, even as families grieve the loss of

01:55their loved ones.

01:56Dolphin Chen and Tiffany Wong for Taiwan Plus.