In November 2015, a conference was held in Istanbul to celebrate the 25th year of the Women’s Library and Information Centre Foundation. Like the Women’s Library in the UK which has roots in the suffrage movement, and the Fawcett Society, this library with its extensive collection of books, archives, periodicals, ephemera, visual materials and women’s biographies aims to serve as the collective memory of the women’s movement in Turkey.
The choice of title for this anniversary, Against Women: Violence without Borders, was hardly celebratory. This is unsurprising if we consider the alarming statistics on violence against women (VAW) in Turkey. Between 2002-2009 the murder rate of women increased 14-fold. In the past five years, 1,134 women have reportedly been murdered, most commonly at the hands of husbands, boyfriends or male kin. The Platform to Stop the Murders of Women reports that in the first ten months of 2015, 236 women were murdered, 112 were raped, 157 forced into prostitution, 316 were assaulted and wounded and 179 suffered harassment.
