CHAPTER 18

• Jurisdiction: United States

CHAPTER 18

Public Campaigns, the Reception of #MeToo, and the Law Concerning Sexual Harassment in Turkey

Kadriye Bakirci¹

Introduction

For decades, Turkish feminists have played an important role in raising awareness about gender-based violence utilizing a variety of publications,² activities, protests, and campaigns.

In 1980, the Turkish women's movement launched the "Campaign Against Battering" to stop domestic violence and wife battering, followed by movements to stop honor killings and to stop subjecting young women to virginity checks, and to halt forced and child marriages.

Since 1989, various women's advocates and groups in Turkey also have initiated activities and campaigns such as "Our Bodies are Ours, Say No to Sexual Law.

Turkish Law," (1999) Istanbul Technical University and Technical University of Berlin, Joint Conference, Istanbul; Kadriye Bakirci (2000a), Is Hukuku Acisindan Isyerinde Cinsel Taciz, Yasa Yayinlari, Istanbul; Kadriye Bakirci (2000b), "Isyerinde Cinsel Taciz ve Turk Is Hukukuna Iliskin Cozum Onerileri," Turhan Esener'e Armagan, Ankara; Kadriye Bakirci (2000c), "Iscilerin Ucuncu Kisilerin Saldirisina Ugramalari Halinde Isverenin Sorumlulugu," Cimento Isveren, C.14, S.3; Kadriye Bakirci, "Sexual Harassment of Working Women in the United Kingdom," Nuri Celik'e Armagan, Beta Yayinlari, Istanbul (2001).

Harassment,"³ "Purple Needle Campaign Against Street Sexual Harassment,"⁴ "Campaign Against the Categorization of Women as 'Respectable Women' and 'Easy Women' by The Previous Criminal Act of 1926,"⁵ "Campaign and Struggle to Intervene as a Third Party in the Court's Proceedings,"⁶ "Woman's Statement is Sufficient" Campaign,⁷ and the "Campaign Over 13 Year Old Girl Rape Case."⁸ All of these campaigns played an important role in raising public awareness about the issue of sexual violence and street sexual harassment.

Two years before the #MeToo Movement caught on in the West, women in Turkey had started a social media campaign on Twitter to share their accounts of sexual harassment and violence, in the very powerful #SenDeAnlat ("YouTellToo" or "TellYourStoryToo") Twitter campaign after twenty-year-old female psychology student Ozgecan Aslan was brutally murdered in 2015.

On February 11, 2015, Ozgecan Aslan was traveling on a minibus in the south-east seaside province of Mersin, when the minibus driver tried to rape her. Aslan pepper-sprayed the driver before he stabbed her and beat her to death with an iron bar. He then enlisted the help of his father and a friend to dispose of her body in a river in Tarsus. The body was found showing evidence of burns as well as the fatal injuries. The driver was arrested on February 16, 2015, confessed to the crime, and his father and friend were also arrested. All three were convicted and ordered to serve life imprisonment. The driver was killed in prison the next year.⁹

Ozgecan Aslan's murder sparked mass protests in Turkey and prompted women to share their stories of sexual harassment, violence, and fear in a growing Twitter campaign.¹⁰ Using the hashtag #SenDeAnlat, women have told of their experiences of violence, intimidation and harassment, as well as tactics that they have resorted to, such as wearing a wedding ring or getting off a bus early to avoid being the last passenger.¹¹

Since February 16, 2015, more than 440,000 tweets have been shared under the hashtag #SenDeAnlat, and it was the third highest trending topic worldwide on February 17, 2015. Another hashtag, #OzceganAslan, was even more popular, trending as the highest topic worldwide on February 16 and 17, 2015, with more than 2.5 million tweets.¹²

These devastating first-hand accounts of victims showed that no female was immune to sexual harassment; it affects minors, hijabis,¹³ the elderly and disabled, those living in urban and rural areas, those with little education and those with graduate degrees, the rich and poor, and tourists and locals. All these women had been taught since early childhood to hide in shame and to remain quiet in the face of rape and sexual harassment. Now it was out in the open.

Beren Saat, a Turkish actress and celebrity, wrote via Twitter about her own experiences and how hard it was to be a woman in Turkey. Saat wrote about the sexual abuse she has faced, starting from her school years up until very recently, even as a well-known actress. "All the cat-calls at me while I was returning home from school with a school uniform skirt . . . my accelerated steps in the dark while returning home from preparatory school . . . the face of the child who showed his erect penis to me inside our apartment building and me running home with trembling hands and not telling this story to anyone . . . my fight with a drunk broadcasting manager who grabbed my butt during the TV channel's celebration night . . ." were examples of some of the abuse Saat related.¹⁴ She did not name her harassers.

Didem Soydan, a well-known Turkish model, tweeted that she had received anonymous abusive text messages, which started with "so you're a model," after she had testified and given her cell phone number to police in the case of a woman who was forced into a car after being beaten.¹⁵

Among the stories shared under the #SenDeAnlat, many women related either their own harassment stories or shared tactics that women had to take to avoid sexual harassment. "Not being able to turn the light on immediately when you enter your house to avoid being spotted at which flat you live," or "Is there any man (in Turkey) who tells his mother to keep talking on the phone because a group of women are standing in his way?" and "We cannot wear lipstick, miniskirts, grow our hair long, go out at night, laugh because we are women, right?" were a few examples of the many shared experiences which women in Turkey face.¹⁶

Meanwhile, during a rally condemning Aslan's murder in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, a woman cried for justice as she related by megaphone the story of her rape. "Enough already! What is the end to the murders, rapes and all these things? The judge said there is 'consent' because (the rape victim) was over 16, said M.N., the rape victim, referring to her own rape case, during which the rapist walked free from court because the judge ruled that consent to sex had been given because she was over sixteen years old.¹⁷

In June 2017, three women decided to set up a HarassMap in Turkey inspired by the Egyptian HarassMap initiative, and they asked Egyptian volunteers to help them to start their own version of the HarassMap Platform. The Egyptian HarassMap is an award-winning volunteer-based initiative founded in late 2010.¹⁸ HarassMap is based on the idea that if more people start taking action when sexual harassment happens in their presence, this epidemic can be ended. By taking a collective stand against sexual harassment, re-establishing social consequences for harassers—and making role models of people who stand up to them—it is believed that harassers can be deterred from harassing again.¹⁹

The Egyptian HarassMap initiative is trying to create a global movement of HarassMap-inspired initiatives against sexual harassment.²⁰

"Sendeanlat.harassmap.org" platform was launched in Turkey in October 2017. It is an open data platform that aims to contribute to advocacy by keeping data on sexual harassment and sexual assault incidents reported to the site through a crowdsourcing method. The platform gets its name from the #sendeanlat tag that appeared on social media after the murder of Ozgecan Aslan.²¹

Although women in Turkey had begun to share their accounts of sexual harassment and violence long before the #MeToo Movement, the #MeToo Movement itself—calling out harassers by name and holding them accountable—was stillborn in Turkey.

To commemorate November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in 2017 the Hurriyet daily newspaper interviewed famous women who shared their memories of domestic violence. The interviews were published on November 27, 2017, under the headline "Ben De Siddet Gordum (I Have Experienced Violence Too) and started trending on social media. Most of these prominent women confessed their memories of beatings and humiliation from men close to them: boyfriends, husbands, fathers, or colleagues, as well as violence from random strangers. They advised others not to stay quiet, to join feminist organizations, and to set an example that humiliation should be brought to the perpetrators, not their victims²² . Although Hurriyet's interviews got public attention, none of those interviewed named their attackers. Without names, there were no consequences. No one was prosecuted; no one resigned from their jobs; no one provided a public apology. #MeToo movement has not encouraged more victims to speak up.

The Struggle to Enact Laws That Protect Women Against Harassment in Turkey

Turkey did not have any specific laws or statutory provisions on sexual harassment until 2003. However, general provisions of the Turkish Constitution, and civil and criminal statutes were applicable to sexual harassment.²³

After the Helsinki European summit in 1999 granted Turkey official European Union candidate country status, the ensuing reform process in Turkey brought many legislative changes for women's rights. As a candidate country, Turkey was required to harmonize its existing legislation and practices concerning the equal treatment of men and women in the labor market with those of the European Union. The accession criteria require Turkey to fully adopt the legal framework of the European Union (called "Acquis Communautaire").²⁴

In 2004, Turkey passed certain constitutional amendments to bring the country more closely in line with the European Union, including ratification of international treaties. According to the amended Turkish Constitution,²⁵ where a conflict between ratified international treaties covering fundamental rights and freedoms...