IV. Silence and Violence: The Situations of Lesbian and Bisexual Women and GirlsA. Cuci and Gias StoryCuci and Gia were both 21 when we spoke to them in 2003; they identified as lesbians, and they were in love. Gia grew up in Izmir; she met Cuci, who is from Istanbul, over the internet when both were 20. Gia left her family home and went to a town near Izmir to stay with Cuci for a few days. However, they accidentally met Gias parents on the street there. They asked why I had left. My mother said, Did you run off to live like pigs, like perverts? She started to hit me on the street. Gia returned home that night. Her family had searched her room: They found love letters that I had written to Cuci, and pictures wed exchanged. They kept me up till 7 a.m. talking to me. My mother said she didnt believe something like this could happen. She said you can never write something like that to a woman. And she said, You must never meet again. Secretly, Cuci came to Izmir and rented an apartment so the two could be together for a few hours each day. At home, Gia said, They followed me, spied on me. I felt if they knew she was in town they would do me violence. I had to be very careful. Her mother finally found out that she was meeting Cuci. So she started swearing, threatening me. I told Cuci I couldnt go home: we had to leave town. We went to Bursa where I had friends, and stayed in a friends house for a month. Gia continued,
Gias family located Cucis parents in Istanbul. My mother kept calling Cucis family and threatening them. Because of you, my daughter became lesbianif I were you, Id break my daughters legs so she couldnt go outside.
The prosecutor could have offered several remedies to the threatened women. For instance, provisions of the TCK call for increased penalties in cases where violence is committed by family members.72 He did not. The prosecutor understood that we were lesbians, explained Cuci, and he said, You are doing something wrong. Dont you think of having children in the future? He asked us how we have sex. And I said, Enough. He didnt say anything about our fears. So we went away.73 B. The Power of the FamilyHuman rights violations against lesbian and bisexual women and girls in Turkey are inextricable from the abuses that women in Turkish society face in general. Human Rights Watch interviewed 24 lesbian or bisexual women and girls in 2003 and 2007. The most overwhelming factor that they cited to Human Rights Watch is the subjection of women and their sexualities to the family and its valuesincluding honor or custom. As women and girls whose sexualities move beyond the norms and expectations of heterosexuality, lesbians and bisexual women and girls feel these pressures in especially acute ways, and feel and fear the steady possibility of family violence. In recent years, the Turkish government has made advances in protecting women and girls from ill-treatment. The Law on the Protection of the Family, passed in 1998, allows any member of a family subject to domestic violence to file in court for a protection order against the perpetrator.74 It was at first generally interpreted to include only violence between spouses, because the section on sanctions referred only to a spouse. In May 2007 a reform extended the definition of victim of domestic violence to include all members of the family, whether living or not in the same household.75 Meanwhile, a 2004 law requires all municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants to provide a shelter for women and children victims of violence.76 However, concerns remain about whether these laws work for most women and girls. In its 2005 report on Turkey, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Disc rimination against Women (CEDAW), that oversees states compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, underlined the need to fully implement and carefully monitor the effectiveness of the Law on the Protection of the Family, and of related policies in order to prevent violence against women, provide protection and support services to the victims, and punish and rehabilitate offenders.77 Some problems have to do with the police and judiciarys role. Sevinç Eryılmaz, professor at Bilgi University explained, In practice the law is not working very well. The decision [to grant a protection order] is supposed to be made immediately but they [the judges] dont. Prosecutors are asking for medical reports as the golden proof of violence. We have had cases of women who have gone to the police station and they got sent back to their house; after, the police tell the husband the wife started a case against them.78 Neither in the Law on the Protection of the Family nor elsewhere in Turkish law is there specific reference to violence against women or girls due to their perceived sexual orientation. CEDAW asked Turkey in 2005 to provide in its next report information, sex-disaggregated statistics and data relating to women in the judiciary, trafficked women and girls, as well as Kurdish women and other groups of women subject to multiple forms of discrimination and their access to health, employment and education, as well as various forms of violence committed against them.79 However, reports on gender-based violence that Turkey has presented to UN mechanisms thereafter leave issues of violence against lesbian and bisexual women unaddressed.80 The indifference may be inadvertent, but it is not benign. Turkish organizations working with women victims of violenceincluding lesbian and bisexual women said that they thought lesbian and bisexual women would be afraid to seek recourse when facing family violence out of fear that they might be forced to reveal their sexuality and in turn face even more discrimination or violence. Secin, who has worked with women victims of violence, told Human Rights Watch, Lesbians are all required to keep quiet and not say anything [when victims of violence].81 The General Coordinator for the Istanbul Research Centre on Women told Human Rights Watch, I cant think of a lesbian woman that could easily go to the authorities or seek other type of protection admitting her sexuality.82 The new Turkish Criminal Code (TCK) that entered into force on June 1, 2005, after a successful campaign by womens movements, brought positive changes towards the recognition of womens sexual and bodily rights.83 Sexual crimes now carry higher sentences and it is harder for perpetrators of honor killings to win sentence reductions. However, according to womens rights organizations, the reforms have fallen short.84 Article 82/k, specifying the aggravating circumstances of a crime, states that killings in the name of töre (custom)constitute aggravated homicide and the perpetrator must be sentenced to life imprisonment. However, there is no mention of killings justified in the name of namus (honor)which may be exempted from the higher sentences for töre (custom) killings. Concern over this large loophole was expressed by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Disc rimination Against Women: reviewing Turkey in 2005, it found that the use of the term custom killing instead of honour killing in the Penal Code may result in less vigorous prosecution of, and less severe sentences for, the perpetrators of such crimes against women.85 Yakın Ertürk, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, agrees: With the law worded as töre, there is still room for interpretation.86 Since namus is not specifically included as one of the aggravating circumstances of a crime, other provisions within the Criminal Code can still be used to reduce the sentences of those who have committed crimes in the name of namus. Article 29 establishes sentence reductions for provocation: If an individual commits a crime while in a state of anger or mental anguish induced by an unjust action, their heavy life sentence penalty can be reduced to 18 to 24 years, or their life sentence penalty can be reduced to 12 to 18 years. In other instances, the sentence can be reduced by [an amount ranging from] one quarter to three quarters.87 Womens rights groups in Turkey have said that this article implicitly offers license to perpetrators of honor killings and legitimizes this violent tradition under the pretext of penal law.88 Honor killings entail the murder of a woman or girl suspected of transgressing the limits of sexual behavior imposed by tradition. Homosexual conduct between women and girls transgresses insofar as their behavior moves beyond the norms and expectations of traditional heterosexual conduct. Indeed, lesbian and bisexual women and girls repeatedly told Human Rights Watch researchers that their families saw their sexual orientation as a source of shame.89 One case points to the legal consequences of this perception. On January 4, 2005, an Istanbul court convicted a man of stabbing to death a woman whom he believed to be his wifes girlfriend. Finding that the alleged lesbian relationship had provoked him, the court lowered his prison sentence from 24 years to six years and eight months.90 The court did not even consider aggravating the penalty under Article 82that is, finding the crime one of custom. The case illuminates with terrible intensity the same travails Gia and Cuci experienced: the difficulties women and girls can endure in asserting an autonomous sexuality outside their families control. Like Gia and Cucis story, it also shows a state unwilling to defend them effectivelyits officers sometimes more interested in prurient fantasy than in the facts of the harassment and violence they faced. These stories confirm the specific protection lesbian and bisexual women and girls need, despite the changes in legislation. Okyanus, a bisexual and a feminist activist, told Human Rights Watch that women and girls are still considered the repository of honor, legal changes aside. Women having autonomous sexual desires threaten the conception of them as property. And it threatens the namusthe honor of a family, a group, a clan. If a man is walking with his sister on the street and another man looks at her, namus is hurt and may give the brother reason to kill him. Turkeys rapid twentieth-century modernization has not changed this conception of honor and control over womens sexuality. Its a Potemkin modernity in Turkey, Yeşim, a 30-year-old lesbian activist, said, [t]he old patterns persist:
This is one of the reasons Ayşe, 26, has not come out to her family. Im not planning to say anything ever. This is something that can result in killings in my family. My dad says, I can forgive if my children are prostitutes, thieves, but I cannot forgive one thing, being homosexual.92 As a result of such pressures, Okyanus said, life for lesbian and bisexual women and girls in Turkey is hard, almost impossible. She told Human Rights Watch, Many people in Turkey keep silent because of family. My family would not want to see me if they knew. She has a 15-year-old son. He doesnt know. But he once said, If I ever find out you are a lesbian, Ill never look in your face again.93 And isolation, she emphasized, is the basic fact:
These problems intensify in the arena of marriage. The difficulties of heterosexual women in Turkey in establishing free choice in marriage are familiar to lesbian and bisexual women. Okyanus explains, Pressure comes because fundamentally this is a feudal, patriarchal society. I have visited many places in Anatolia where women [and girls] are forced to get married. It is already difficult to be a woman [or girls] in Turkey. But if you are a lesbianyou cant imagine.95 The UN CEDAW and the ICCPR spell out the obligation of States to ensure equality in all matters related to marriage.96 Pursuant to these standards, articles 126 and 127 of the New Turkish Civil Code, which came into force on January 1, 2002, provide that full and free consent of the couple getting married is a basic condition for marriage for both children and adults.97 Article 124 sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage for men and women. Yet reality does not reflect the norm, and for women whose sexuality leads them to refuse heterosexual marriage, pressure can become harassment. Zeynep, 30, a writer from an intellectual background, told Human Rights Watch, Womens sexuality is seen as tied to men. The pressure to marry is intense. Most people, if youre a woman in your thirties, expect you to be married and have kids; there is no other option.98 Yasemin told Human Rights Watch, At 17 I tried to commit suicide. I thought that I would have to get married.99 In some situations suggestion becomes coercion. Toprak, 31, is originally from Malatya, a province in the south-east of Turkey. Though he now sees himself as a transgender man, at 16, when he left his parents, he identified as a lesbian woman. Toprak did not leave his parents lightly.
Even without the threat of marriage, parents apply financial as well as social pressures to lesbian and bisexual women and girls. Esra, a 21-year-old lesbian, said
Nehir told Human Rights Watch, There is a difference depending on whether you are economically independent or dependent on your family. When they know you can work, can rent a place, you face less violence. But when you are dependent on them, the pressure grows. And beyond that some families are very conservative, beat their children, dominate them cruelly.102 Lesbian women repeatedly pointed to women and girls lack of financial independence as a wellspring of family power. Ecem, 19, told her parents she was a lesbian at 17. My mom kicked me out of the house several times, she said. The last time was last year in the beginning of spring. Then I decided I would go to my fathers house. My mom said: If you go I will cut your money too. Worried she would have to drop out of school, Ecem decided to staystill feeling that inside the family you cant do anything.103 Independence, however, is sometimes not enough to stop abuses. Human Rights Watch spoke to Tansu, 23, who pointed the violent power of family constraints even after she left home. Tansu realized she was a lesbian in secondary school, but told no one. My father is a very harsh man. I was 13 when he hit me for the first time. It was because I was playing football with boys, she explained. Tansu said that her family is very conservative and would never accept her sexual orientation. The pressure came not only from her parents, but from her sister. [She] always suspected. She never asked me exact questionsbut she had suspicions. She questioned the music I listened toshe said a woman who didnt have perverted feelings wouldnt listen to stuff like that. After refusing to marry manta her parents behest, Tansu left home. The pressure did not cease. Tansu explains:
C. Overcoming Solitude: Public Harassment and the Dangers of SolidarityFreedom of expression and association are rights recognized in the Turkish Constitution.105 However, social, economic, and in some cases legal strictures interfere with lesbian and bisexual womens full enjoyment of those rights. Most basically, Didem told Human Rights Watch, There is no lesbian community in Turkey: just some groups of friends.106 Yeşim said,
Economic powerlessness makes it difficult for women to claim public space and public identities. Women dont have money, Yeşim stated simply. And they are afraid to do independent things because all their lives they are kept in a constricted area by men.108
At the same time, Yeşim said, [w]e are beginning to build our own social environment now. It must come out of our efforts and is more difficult than for menyou cant just look for lesbians, find them, and join.110 When they do try to join existing groups largely composed of men, some face difficulties from their own families. My mom found out I was going to Lambda [Istanbul]. She said: you cant go, youre under eighteen and the police will take you. They will close it because of you! said Ecem.111 Lesbians have haltingly become more visible in Turkish society, yet images of them in public circulation are often dangerously distorted. Zeynep noted that the press shows lesbians as killers, kidnapping other women, sexual predators. In general lesbians are shown when a crime is involved, or a tragedy, or a rumor or scandal involving a celebrity, which gives her the opportunity to show off her beautiful body. Nothing positive is printed about lesbians in Turkey.112 She added that even at the progressive newspaper where she works, I found the archive on lesbians was filed under sexual problems.113 The result is growing awareness but also prurient curiosity about lesbians in Turkeywhich increasingly translates into harassment on the streets as well as in the home. Didem told explained that she and her girlfriend
Secin, who works as a waitress in a predominantly gay club in Ankara, recounted one night in March 2006 when a friend of hers was there with another lesbian:
Ferda, a lesbian businesswoman, said that rumors about her sexual orientation have increasingly interfered with her work. Sometimes a businessman comes to me and says, Well do business if you have sex with me. Not despite my being a lesbian, but because of it. They keep insisting, because they think they can cure me. They harass me. Some say, Have sex with your girlfriend and me too.116 Devrim, a 19-year-old lesbian, told Human Rights Watch that in 2007 her choral professor at a music conservatory gave her a failing grade. I knew she had seen me distributing bills about MorEl [a student LGBT organization meaning Purple Hand]. The teacher later admitted to my mom that she had failed me because I was a lesbian.117 Esme, 17, told Human Rights Watch how stereotype and suspicion led to her expulsion from a reputable private schooland to family violence as well.
After a years halt in her education, Now I am in a different school. The students are good and our relations are good. Esme also told Human Rights Watch that I have alright relations with my family now. Theyve gotten used to it. But my sister calls all homosexuals devils. Esme added, I just wanted to be honest. I dont have a community, I dont have lesbian friends. I am alone. Unfortunately, I dont have luck.118 In this case Esmes right to education under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was violated, but as already noted, police and other state authorities have also been accused of general neglect toward abuses against women and girls in other spheres.119 Ferdas story, however, suggests that authorities still have not addressed the problem; confrontations with police continue and can be fraught. Outed in the 1990s by a journalist, Ferda faced steady harassment from neighbors: They would call police and say that because I was a lesbian I was a terrorist, or I was pimping other women. She complained to the police. The policeman in charge of the investigation, she says, was the officer implicated in the death under torture of the journalist Metin Göktepe.120
D. Organizing: Politics and Womens SexualitiesLesbian and bisexual women have had difficulty finding political space within both the feminist and gay movements. Okyanus, a feminist activist, told Human Rights Watch that among womens organizations, The majority still have a negative atmosphere toward homosexuality.
In 2003, womens groups organized a meeting to prepare a shadow report to the CEDAW. Burcu, 27, and active in the LGBT movement in Turkey since 1999 was there as an open lesbian from KAOS-GL. One of the women said you are a very nice girl, you dont have to be a lesbian. I felt they were just thinking about my sexual orientation. Some of them never looked at my face. It was really disturbing.123 Didem believes that The feminism of the 1970s in the West is still predominant here in Turkey; and that is uncomfortable with sexuality. It says that women have to struggle against their sexualities, to repress them. And the result is that welesbiansare repressed.124 However, Hasbiye suggests growing acceptance in the feminist movement.
Lesbian and bisexual women also complain of sexism within gay and (nominally) lesbian organizations. Okyanus told Human Rights Watch, Gay men are fed from the patriarchal values of Turkish society. They absorb values of discrimination against women. They are intolerant of letting women have their own space for their own needs.126 Yet Yeşim said that before joining KAOS-GL, Ankaras mixed organization,
She added,
72 Turkish Penal Code, article 81: A person who has intentionally killed a person is punisheable by a life sentence; article 82(d): A person who intentionally kills a family member, spouse, or sibling is punishable by an aggravated life sentence; article 86: Intentionally causing pain to someone or intentionally harming their health or mental faculties is punishable by a prison sentence of one to three years; article 86(3)a: When this is done to a family member, spouse or sibling the punishment is increased by one half. ... [TCK, Madde 81: (1) Bir insanı kasten öldüren kişi, müebbet hapis cezası ile cezalandırılır, Nitelikli hâller; Madde 82(d): Üstsoy veya altsoydan birine ya da eş veya kardeşe karşım, Kasten yaralama; article 86(3)a: Üstsoya, altsoya, eşe veya kardeşe karşı,... .] 73 Human Rights Watch Interview with Gia and Cuci (names changed), Istanbul, October 21, 2003. Human Rights Watch has also inspected the claim documents the two filed at Üsküdar Court. The harassment continued: in late 2003, as the pair sat in the audience of a live television show, Gias mother saw them and called the program. They put her on the air and my stepfather grabbed the phone, saying, She kidnapped my child! The studio guards wouldnt let us leave: and we were even on the evening news. Gia and Cuci now live together. The latter concludes, We dont know what will happen in future. We are not comfortable in our situation: some people on the street shout, You lesbians! We would like to stay together. But we dont want to have to leave the country. 74 Law on the Protection of the Family, No. 4320 (1998). 75 Ibid. This law was reformed in 2006 through a revision to the original law spelled out in articles 1 and 2 of Law No. 5636. 76 Law on Municipalities, No. 5272 (2004). 77 Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), G.A. Res. 34/180, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, acceded by Turkey on December 20, 1985. CEDAW, Concluding Comments: Turkey, CEDAW/C/TUR/CC/4-5, January 15, 2005, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw32/conclude-comments/Turkey/CEDAW-CC-TUR-0523813E.pdf, para. 27, www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw32/conclude-comments/Turkey/CEDAW-CC-TUR-0523813E.pdf (accessed February 12, 2008). 78 Human Rights Watch interview with Professor Sevinc Eryilmaz, Istanbul, October 19, 2007. 79 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Disc rimination Against Women, Turkey, sixtieth session, A/60/38, January 2005, para. 381. 80 See for example, Government of Turkey, Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 entitled Human Rights Council, Annex, The views of the Government of the Republic of Turkey concerning the report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences, Ms. Yakın Ertürk and Human Rights Council, Information Note on the steps taken to combat violence against women in Turkey, A/HRC/4/G/10, March 14, 2007, http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/4/G/10 (accessed February 12, 2008). 81 Human Rights Watch interview with Secin, Ankara, November 2, 2007. 82 Human Rights Watch, interview with the General Coordinator for the Istanbul Research Centre on Women (name withheld), New York, March 4, 2008. 83 The Penal Code was adopted by the Turkish National Assembly on September 26, 2004. 84 Women for Womens Human Rights (WWHR-New Ways), Turkish Civil and Penal Code Reforms from a Gender Perspective: The Success of two Nationwide Campaigns, (Istanbul: New Ways, 2005) p. 63. Available at http://www.wwhr.org/images/CivilandPenalCodeReforms.pdf (accessed April 25, 2008). 85 See above, fn 98., para. 363. 86 Human Rights Watch interview with Yakın Ertürk, Ankara, November 6, 2007. 87 [TCK, madde 29 (1) Ceza Sorumluluğunu Kaldıran veya Azaltan Nedenler, Haksız tahrik: (1) Haksız bir fiilin meydana getirdiği hiddet veya şiddetli elemin etkisi altında suç işleyen kimseye, ağırlaştırılmış müebbet hapis cezası yerine onsekiz yıldan yirmidört yıla ve müebbet hapis cezası yerine oniki yıldan onsekiz yıla kadar hapis cezası verilir. Diğer hâllerde verilecek cezanın dörtte birinden dörtte üçüne kadarı indirilir.] 88 WWHR-New Ways, Gender Discrimination in the Turkish Penal Code Draft Law (Istanbul: New Ways, 2003) p. 7. Available at http://www.wwhr.org/files/2_3.pdf (accessed April 25, 2008). 89 See for example, Human Rights Watch interview with Emel, Istanbul, November 9, 2007. 90 E-mail communication to Human Rights Watch from KAOS-GL, January 23, 2005; see She was like a man but she wasnt a lesbian (Erkek gibiydi ama lezbiyen değildi), Sabah newspaper, January 25, 2004, and Sentence reduction for lesbian murder on the basis of heavy incitement (Lezbiyen cinayetine ağır tahrik indirimi), Sabah newspaper, January 5, 2005. 91 Human Rights Watch interview with Yeşim, Istanbul, October 4, 2003. Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed her again in 2007 and she reiterated the statement. 92 Human Rights Watch interview with Ayşe, Istanbul, October 23, 2007. 93 In 1996, a ruling by Turkeys Cassation Court held that for a child to be reared by a lesbian threatened its moral development. It denied a lesbian mother custody of her daughter, calling her sexual orientation a sickness. A similar decision was taken by the Supreme Court (Yargitay) 2nd Law Section on June, 21, 1982. 94 When asked how they felt as they realized their sexual orientation, interviewed lesbian women responded they thought they were the only lesbians in the world. Human Rights Watch interview with Yasemin, Istanbul, November 10, 2007; Human Rights Watch interview with Ödül (name changed), Istanbul, November 2, 2007, among others. 95 Human Rights Watch interview with Okyanus (name changed), Istanbul, September 30, 2003. 96 Article 16 of CEDAW sets forth that states should [t]ake all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women: (a) The same right to enter into marriage; (b) The same right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent. Article 23(4) of the ICCPR determines that governments should take appropriate steps to ensure equality of rights and responsibilities of spouses as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. In the case of dissolution, provision shall be made for the necessary protection of any children. 97 Article 10 (1) of the International Covenant of Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) sets forth that [m]arriage must be entered into with the free consent of the intending spouses. Article 16 (1) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) provides that States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women the same right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent. 98 Human Rights Watch interview with Zeynep, Istanbul, October 2, 2004. 99 Human Rights Watch interview with Yasemin, Istanbul, November 10, 2007. 100 Human Rights Watch interview with Toprak, Ankara, November 6, 2007. 101 Human Rights Watch interview with Esra, Istanbul, October 4, 2004. 102 Human Rights Watch interview with Nehir, Istanbul, October 7, 2004. 103 Human Rights Watch interview with Ecem, Istanbul, October 23, 2007. 104 Human Rights Watch interview with Tansu (name changed), Istanbul, October 7, 2003. Lesbians are not alone in often experiencing violent pressure within the family. Cihan, of Lambda Istanbul, commented that for LGBT people generally, The worst problem is when you are a child, developing character, trying to be something. There is the real violence in homophobia. Other formsopen, criminal violenceare just extensions of yourself. The worst is what you are made to do to yourself. To try to change yourself and not be able tothat is the worst thing. Human Rights Watch interview with Cihan, Lambda Istanbul, October 15, 2003. Several gay men recounted abuse within the family. Göksel, who turned 18 in 2007, told Human Rights Watch researchers that [o]ne day in the beginning of October I had been wearing some makeup. I had exaggerated a bit so they [my parents] probably saw the traces on my face. My brother, who is a policeman, started to beat me up. Then my father saw me and beat me up too. They took my collars, my earrings, my clothes and threw them away. He [my father] made me cut my hair and made me wear lumberjack t-shirts. Human Rights Watch interview with Göksel (name changed), Istanbul, October 24, 2007. Transgender peoplemost of whose families severed contact with them after, or even before, they transitionedtell particularly poignant, and disturbing, stories. Esmeray, who was raised in a Kurdish village in eastern Turkey, says that, when she entered adolescence and was identified as girlish, her brother suggested shutting her in an abandoned stable and burying her under its stones; Otherwise I would create bigger problems in the future. Human Rights Watch interview with Esmeray, Istanbul, October 1, 2003. Sinan, a 26-year-old transgender man, told us, My mom would try to make me wear dresses. Between the age of 12 and 18 she did not let me cut my hair. She would verbally abuse me and I would respond. It was mutual torture. My family thinks, if you are going to be our son, do it quietly. Human Rights Watch interview with Sinan, Istanbul, October 20, 2007. Ebru said, My family cut off all relations with me. They were cultured, had lived in Germany for fifteen years, but they couldnt stand it. Once, years later, I missed my family very much and I called them, but they hung up. Once, again, I found myself missing them so terriblyI went there with a friend in her car, and they didnt let me enter the house. They said they didnt want to see me again. And since then I have never seen them. Human Rights Watch interview with Ebru, Istanbul, October 24, 2003. 105 Article 26 provides that [e]veryone has the right to express and disseminate his thoughts and opinion by speech, in writing or in pictures or through other media, individually or collectively. Article 33 states that [e]veryone has the right to form associations, or become a member of an association, or withdraw from membership without prior permission. 106 Human Rights Watch interview with Didem, Istanbul, October 4, 2004. 107 Human Rights Watch interview with Yeşim, Istanbul, November 11, 2007. 108 Human Rights Watch interview with Yeşim, Istanbul, October 4, 2003. 109 Human Rights Watch interview with Nehir, Istanbul, October 7, 2003. 110 Human Rights Watch interview with Yeşim, Istanbul, October 4, 2003. 111 Human Rights Watch interview with Ecem, Istanbul, October 23, 2007. 112 See, for a typical instance, Lesbian murders, Sabahnewspaper, July 16, 2000. The article describes two killings: in one, a woman subjected to an indecent proposal (ahlaksiz teklif)from a lesbian responded by stabbing her to death; in the other, a lesbian lover slew the other after a quarrel. 113 Human Rights Watch interview with Zeynep, Istanbul, October 2, 2003. 114 Human Rights Watch interview with Didem, Istanbul, October 4, 2003. Emel faced a similar situation in Ankara. I was walking with my girlfriend on the street. I was crying, so she hugged me. A man walking by shouted, What are you doing? Are you having sex? Then he threw himself at us and tried to hit us. Human Rights Watch interview with Emel, Ankara, November 2, 2007. 115 Human Rights Watch interview with Secin, Ankara, November 2, 2007. 116 Human Rights Watch interview with Ferda (name changed), Istanbul, October 22, 2003. 117 Human Rights Watch interview with Devrim, Ankara, November 1, 2007. 118 Human Rights Watch interview with Esme, Istanbul, October 20, 2003. 119 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted November 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, annex, 44 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 167, U.N. Doc A/44/49 (1989), entered into force September 2, 1990, art. 28. 120 Metin Göktepe was a 27-year-old journalist who worked for the left-wing daily newspaper Evrensel. He was detained by the police on January 8, 1996 in the Eyüp district of Istanbul, while covering the funeral of two prisoners killed by their guards during a prison outbreak. That same day he was beaten to death. On March 19, 1998, five of the 11 police officers accused of his death were sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. The six other police officers were acquitted. http://www.ifex.org/fr/content/view/full/6097 (accessed March 23, 2008). 121 Human Rights Watch interview with Ferda, Istanbul, October 22, 2003. 122 Human Rights Watch interview with Okyanus, Istanbul, September 30, 2003. 123 Human Rights Watch interview with Burcu, Ankara, November 1, 2007. 124 Human Rights Watch interview with Didem, Istanbul, October 4, 2003. 125 Human Rights Watch interview with Hasbiye, Istanbul, November 9, 2007. 126 Human Rights Watch interview with Okyanus, Istanbul, September 30, 2003. 127 Human Rights Watch interview with Yeşim, Istanbul, October 1, 2003. |