I think that Turkish Mayor Necmittin Dede must hang out with the Toronto police officer who said that if women stopped dressing like sluts they wouldn’t face sexual assault (his comment led to the global SlutWalk movement, starting with SlutWalk Toronto in April). They must sit around brainstorming flawed, offensive, and misogynistic public statements they can make to stir up trouble and keep women’s rights activists up at night.
From Hürriyet Daily News:
“Women complaining about sexual harassment on the streets of the eastern province of Muş should deal with the problem by simply staying at home, the province’s mayor has said.
Do not walk around, sit in your homes,” 71-year-old Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Mayor Necmittin Dede recently told Muş representatives of the Women’s Center, or KAMER, when they told authorities that high employment in the city had resulted in men spilling out of the overcrowded teahouses in the area to verbally harass female passersby.”
Not only is this statement truly ludicrous for its impracticality and pointless for placing the onus on women to try to stay safe from men on the streets instead of placing the onus on men on the streets to treat women with respect, but it’s also ironic. The women asking for help in addressing street harassment actually work at a domestic violence shelter! They of all people know that, thanks to domestic violence, homes can be as, if not more, dangerous for women than the streets.
From the domestic violence shelter workers:
“We have appealed to the authorities time and time again, yet they do not allow us into the schools to conduct training sessions about women. So we visit households instead. We conducted surveys in 700 households until now that show the rate of domestic violence stands around 70 percent,” said Necmiye Boz of KAMER.
Muş municipality does maintain a women’s shelter in the area – although the building is prominently identified by a large sign, allowing potential attackers to find women seeking refuge in the building.
A total of six honor killings have been committed in the province over the past two months although some of the deaths have been passed off as suicides, according to Boz and another KAMER representative, Ayşegül Söylemez.”
Outrageous. What will it take before the mayor and others care that domestic violence AND street harassment are prevalent (and inter-related)? A 100% rate instead of a 70% rate? Maybe not even then; with those high statistics, the probability suggests the mayor could be one of those abusers so why would he care about stopping it?
The silver lining in the story is that the police seem to care.
“Among state authorities, local police have led the way in trying to combat domestic violence, releasing preparing a report titled “Survey Report on Cases of Domestic Violence.” Law enforcement officers have also rented billboards to create awareness about the problems facing women. One such billboard features the portrait of a happy family, with text underneath saying, “Not everything is what it seems.”
KAMER was officially founded in 1997 and continued to grow and strengthen itself in the following years. At the moment, the group is trying to expand its activities in 23 provinces of eastern and southeastern Anatolia to more districts, villages and remote areas.
Since 1984, thousands of women have joined the group, which advocates for and extends aid to victims who face attack, arrest, torture and even death around Turkey.
The group also aims to provide analysis on the people who are convicted of beating, stabbing or raping women.”
Police and women of KAMER, keep up your important work. Even though you face resistance at home, you’ve got a lot of support around the world.
LS says
I’m very glad to hear about the SlutWalk movement and glad there is one coming up in my city so I can attend. It’s also regrettable that there is the need for such a movement.
Many times I’ve heard men say that if you are a woman and you don’t want “attention” from men, then dress “plain, with no makeup.” Really? Just that simple? We only wish it were that simple. I proceed to tell them that if that’s what they think, they are clueless beyond imagination and have absolutely no idea what it’s like to be a woman. No idea and no empathy. Some men are always making unwanted attention about how attractive a woman is. This argument that defensive men sadly many women give flies in the face of the facts: no matter what you wear as a woman, or how attractive you are, you could be and probably will be the target of anything from unwanted stares and comments, to some creep laying his hands on you, to sexual assault, rape and murder. Like many women, I have been the target of public sexual harassment wearing a baggy t-shirt and blue jeans. You can’t get much more”plain” than that.
It seems to me that men should be a lot more concerned about the underlying messages about them: that they are a bunch of undisciplined animals, controlled completely by their hormones, that can’t manage to treat a woman respectfully and just leave her alone if she is dressed a certain way. And yet, most women that I see daily dress for the most part pretty conservatively. Where are all these women that are dressed in such a sexy way that a man couldn’t possibly control himself? And if a woman does want to dress sexy, she has the right to do that without being disrespected, harassed or assaulted, just as men have the right to walk around half-naked with no shirt on without being threatened for it.
Because of their male privilege, some men walk around judging women for wearing something low-cut or a mini-skirt, all the while they are walking around shirtless with shorts on. They fail to acknowledge the double standard. No one accuses men of being “too exposed” or “slutty” when shirtless because they’ve been given that privilege, but God forbid a woman should wear something low cut on a hot summer day.
Women shouldn’t have to wear burqas to keep men from harassing them. Yet, even that doesn’t solve the problem-women are still harassed or worse even when covered head to toe. It’s not about what women wear, and harassers should not be allowed to get away with using women’s choice of clothing as an excuse for their behavior. And now, women are being told to imprison themselves in their homes to supposedly avoid being brutalized? This has gotten out of control. Women are being told to give up being full, whole human beings while harassers go about their lives as they please. I’m so tired of nothing being expected of these men. Until harassers are given much more serious legal consequences for their actions, they don’t seem to have much incentive to change.
Lamont Cranston says
Quite honestly, it makes me want to throw my hands up in disgust at the sheer idiocy of these “men” with their insipid comments. Both males in these situations, even though police officers have reputations for abusing their power regardless of country, should have known better than to say such insensitive, degrading, hurtful, and downright stupid comments. Secondly, it does not speak well for the governmental institutions that employ these hydrocephalics.
The Toronto police officer should be fired or at the very least demoted to parking meter enforcement for making such a vapid comment. Does this officer have a record of abuse of power, harassment on the force, or is this moronic comment the only thing he’s done? I’d like to review his personnel file…something tells me there’s more in there regarding abuse of power or being reamed-up by Internal Affairs. Is this how Toronto conducts their police matters? By putting neanderthalic, knuckle-dragging, busy idiots out on the streets with guns and badges and almost unlimited power to harass and detain people? Clearly, the Toronto version of Internal Affairs should get involved. And anyone who reads about this jerk should CC Toronto police IA as well.
The Turkish Mayor is even more horrible to hear about. This man is responsible for enforcing laws and procedures and deciding what can or cannot become public policy….and his brain in clearly up his rectum. Not only is he brazenly bragging about his inability to speak coherently or think logically, he’s also openly daring women in Turkey to do something. To say this donkey’s backside should be recalled is a no-brainer.
I’m an adult male. Reasonably healthy and fit, college-educated; and I don’t feel that I need to dominate anyone. I don’t believe women should be treated disrespectfully or rudely, that women should be treated equally in all ways as men. And I would tell either one of these prepubescent knuckle-heads that they’re unfit for their jobs.