Prosecutor demands 24 years prison for a woman’s self-defense

Melek Ipek is a woman who has been living under terror all her married life. Her husband was an abuser, a torturer, a regular wife beater.

On the evening of January 7th, 2021, Melek lived yet another day and night of terror in the hands of her husband. As before, the children experienced their father’s violence as well. On that night, he intended to kill his two daughters and their mother, his wife.

He raped his wife brutally in the bathroom, tortured her, and prepared to kill her. He tied her naked body with his hunting rope after handcuffing her. He started strangling her and beat her with the cell phone until she was unconscious.

In the events that developed later that night, she grabbed his hunting gun to protect her daughters from death, and in the fight that ensued, he lay dead.

Disregarding all these circumstances, the Turkish prosecutor demanded 24 years prison term for Melek on the opening day of her trial. She is being charged with murder in the first degree, completely ignoring what happened that night and previous violent incidents against her and her children. The prosecutor ignored that she was beaten, raped, handcuffed, and hogtied naked, tortured on the night she fired her husband’s gun to protect herself and her daughters from murder.

In the eyes of the government-appointed prosecutor and the judge, women should not oppose their husbands. Moving more towards Islamic rule and sharia law, the Turkish government of Erdoğan enjoys the support of the male Muslim population benefitting from the patriarchal beliefs.

Since coming to power, the AKP party’s policy has been to appease the Muslim men and declare men as the head of the family. In many open calls, high-ranking government officials and insiders have asked women not to be seen in public, talk loudly, walk on the streets during pregnancy, or eat ice cream in public. The government favors women to wear hijab and cover their heads.

As the country moves more towards conservatism, the attacks on women are increasing. More than 400 women were killed by men last year alone, and the number has risen to 67 already this year. Men know that even if they kill women, they get shorter sentences when they say the women provoked them. Jealousy or honor is nearly an automatic reduction in penalties men get if they present it as a reason for killing a woman.

In her defense, Melek submitted:

“ ’Say your final prayer,’ he said and aimed the rifle at me. I begged him not to kill me. When I realized he was about to shoot, I moved in front of the children. My two daughters were hugging each other, crying. With my hand, I pushed away the rifle barrel. My intention was to manage to get the children away. My husband fired at that point. The bullet went out through the window, we were not wounded. Again he aimed the rifle at me, again I begged him not to kill me. This time he turned the rifle toward our children. He threatened me: “First I will have you live the pain of your children, then I will kill you.” Terrorized, I threw myself on my daughters. He then struck me on the head with the rifle stock. I was wounded in the face, the eyes, on the arm and on the shoulder. He took me into the other room, dragging me by the hair and there, he beat me again with his fists and his feet, to the face and to the body. He took the phone out of my pocket and struck me in the face with it. As I was screaming, he told me to shut up and gripped my throat. Under the effect of the strangling, I felt as if my eyes were going to pop our of their orbits, everything turned black. “Do you think I do less to others?” he yelled. I managed to escape him, and tried to run away. He caught me and beat me again with his fists and his feet. I went on screaming, so again he strangled me. I lost consciousness.”

Women’s organizations are behind Melek with petitions asking the prosecutor to release her as her husband was killed in a self-defense.

Sendika.org News (MB)