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Defining recent femicide in modern Turkey: Revolt killing

Study
Asia and the Pacific

Executive Summary

This paper aims to question recent increasing femicides in Turkey through the examination of their reasons and dynamics. Therefore, it starts with analyzing current terms such as “honor killing”, “töre killing” and “crimes of passion”. The article claims that the recent description of the murder of women in Turkey as “honor killings” is misleading. Turkey must employ finer distinctions among types of femicide so as to prevent murderers and the larger society from justifying such actions through claims of honor. This paper thus asserts that the analysis of femicide in Turkey, as a Muslim country, should go far beyond the context of honor killing and argues that such examination must consider new social and economic changes as well as the new status of women in modern Turkish society. Thus, the article raises a new argument by suggesting a new term, “revolt killing”, for conceptualizing femicide in Turkey in tandem with recent social change and the increasing status of women. It argues that revolt killing is the concept of conflict between tradition and modernity, and it claims that recent increasing femicides in Turkey are closely related with the changing status of women towards modernity in contrast to the stability of men’s status in tradition.

Author(s)

Ihsan Cetin
In generally referring to multiple forms of femicide as “honor killing,” the media has blurred the true situation. In fact, honor killing has strong cultural ties and derives its power from centuries-old tradition. In considering commonalities, one can claim that the term “honor killing” as used in western literature actually corresponds to “töre killing” in Turkey. In other words, a murder arising from the involvement of the larger family, a sense of great shame for the family where they might be considered dishonored, the effects of social pressure, and premeditation, are all factors of töre killing. Crime of passion, on the other hand, corresponds to honor killing, with its meaning used in Turkey. Both of them find their common ground in jealousy and adultery against women. If a husband kills his wife in flagrante delicto that will be named an honor killing in Turkey, while it would be defined as a crime of passion in Western countries.

 

 


 

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