Mobilizing Social Media in Turkey to Protect Women’s Rights

Despite ongoing public discussion of Turkey's failed July 15 coup, the issue of women’s status and rights managed to gain a prominent place on Turkish social networking sites (SNS) in recent weeks. With the backdrop of women’s organizations' considerable effort to create public awareness of women’s rights as a Turkish issue, a physical attack on a woman riding a city bus sparked recent discourse. The incident, in which a man assaulted a woman because he objected to her allegedly revealing outfit, was documented by passengers and security cameras, and widely disseminated on SNS. As a result, the attacker was apprehended and is facing legal proceedings, even though Turkish law lacks the appropriate legal infrastructure for cases of this type. This serves as further evidence of the power of SNS to attract public attention, and lead to social and political processes, including bringing criminals to justice, in instances that might otherwise not have received any publicity.

On September 17, 23-year-old Ayşegül Terzi, a hospital nurse, boarded an Istanbul city bus on her way out. Several minutes later, she was assaulted by another passenger because she was wearing shorts. The attacker, Abdullah Çakıroğlu, kicked Terzi in the face and then fled the scene, while the other passengers came to her assistance. The incident was documented by both passengers and security cameras, and the attacker’s picture spread like wildfire on SNS, as did the image of Terzi with tears and marks of violence on her face. Although the police located the attacker quickly, the Turkish legal code does not have a statute applicable to a case of this type, and so they released Çakıroğlu only a few hours later.

The incident sparked a widespread public call for women to protest in the streets wearing shorts, using the slogan, “Wear shorts and come out to the street.”[1] Similar to many stories that began virally, the establishment media began covering the story after it was widely distributed on SNS. The media covered the public campaign extensively, which led to several other mass demonstrations of men and women wearing shorts.[2] The pressure to bring the attacker to justice led the public prosecutor to demand that Çakıroğlu be re-arrested, that charges be filed against him, and that he face a sentence of 2-8 years in prison. Lacking a suitable clause under which to prosecute him, the prosecutor asked that Çakıroğlu be charged with “causing dissension, inciting the people and causing enmity” and “preventing freedom of belief and viewpoint.”[3] Although the incident highlighted gaps in the law, Turkish authorities have not yet taken any steps to fill them.

After the attack on Terzi received extensive publicity, many women chose to reveal incidents in which they were victims of attack and sexual assault in workplaces and on public transportation. Women were encouraged to make these revelations by a Turkish-language Twitter hashtag, “you tell, too,” intended to promote conversation on the subject.[4]

The attack against Terzi also brought last February's murder of 20-year-old Özgecan Aslan back into the headlines. Aslan was killed in a minibus while fighting off the driver who was attempting to rape her. Her body was raped and then burned by her attacker, in an attempt to conceal evidence. However, the murderer was apprehended, imprisoned, and stabbed to death in prison by unknown assailants. The murder shocked the Turkish public, and pictures of Aslan became a symbol of opposition to violence against women.[5]

In addition to widespread public condemnation and discourse on the issue, SNS also provided a platform for conservative voices to express their anger at secular women who wear shorts. Some conservative women contended that religious women formerly suffered discrimination at the hands of secular people – for example, preventing religious women from entering public places while wearing head coverings.[6] The conservative discourse also included expressions of opposition to violent assault, but dissatisfaction with Terzi’s behavior, and support for the need to protest against it. This sentiment was prominently expressed by Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, who said that in cases like this, a man should “murmur” rather than attack, as a way to express discomfort with immodest dress.[7] Women’s organizations responded sharply to the Prime Minister’s statement, claiming that it reflected the patriarchal structure of Turkish society.[8]

The Turkish public’s lack of consensus regarding the rights of women was evident in a speech given by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last February, in which he addressed the status of women and violence against women. Erdoğan evoked the Prophet Mohammed’s last sermon, in which he declared that women should remain under the control of men and be subservient to them. The president also accused the Turkish feminist movement of being disconnected from Islam.[9] Secular women firmly protested the president’s comments, but many conservative women supported them. Others in Turkish society wished to conceal the country’s ills and objected to any public exposure. A conspicuous example of this tendency was the opposition by parts of the Turkish public to Turkish-French director Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s award-winning film Mustang, which portrays the misery of women in the Turkish periphery. Despite the Turkish public’s familiarity with this situation, there were many male and female users of SNS who were angry at the film’s director for besmirching Turkey’s good name in the eyes of the world. From their perspective, producing a movie that was translated into several languages and screened around the world is not a worthy way to solve the problems of Turkish society.[10]

The case of Ayşegül Terzi highlights the role of SNS as the “new watchdog of democracy,” and the power they give the public for launching significant public campaigns. However, despite the power SNS place in the hands of the public, their global reach contravenes the desire of some people to conceal social problems and resolve them only within the “walls” of the country, for fear of harming its image - even though such leaks are inevitable in this day and age. The discourse on SNS also reveals the ideological opposition of a segment of the Turkish citizenry, including top government officials, to women’s rights. Despite this, it does seem that the current campaign will be successful in creating a public response that may lead to changing the criminal code pertaining to assault on women.