Nearly 40 women’s organizations including Mor Çatı and LGBT organizations announced a press release on 21th of March, 2013, reacting to an incident that 6 men attempted to rape a woman in Taksim and another person who was trying to protect her was assaulted.
Nearly 40 women’s organizations including Mor Çatı and LGBT organizations announced a press release on 21th of March, 2013, reacting to an incident that 6 men attempted to rape a woman in Taksim and another person who was trying to protect her was assaulted.
“To Press and Public Opinion,
A woman was attempted to be raped in front of everyone on the center of Taksim which was very crowded at 4 a.m on 10th of March. Nobody reacted to violence committed near the bus station that thousands of people use everyday although a lot of people including tradesmen witnessed the incident. When our friend who was passing by wanted to intervene 6 people who attempted to rape her, s/he was assaulted by them in front of everyone including tradesmen. Woman attacked was kidnapped by them and nothing is still heard about her.
This violent incident occurred in front of Muharrem Berber (Muharrem Barber) and Ciğer-i İstanbul which opens during 7/24 on Tarlabaşı Boulevard below Mis Sokak (Mis Street) which is located on İstiklal Avenue.
As the signators indicated below, we are horrified to know that people could attempt to rape someone publicly without getting any reaction of people although the incident occured in front of the buses that we get in everyday and on a crowded street on which thousands of cars pass. Also our friend who was only one trying to intervene in the incident was severely assaulted in front of people.
After the incident, the police center stated that the MOBESE camera (city surveillance cameras) at that area were not recording the section the event happened and implied that therefore the identities of attackers cannot be detected. In a place where the MOBESEs, promoted with “Even police sleeps but MOBESE doesn’t” slogan and whose superior HD qualities were proudly stressed, were also present, it is not acceptable that this incident was somehow not on the camera records. Furthermore, the “suspicion” of police that the women under attack was a sex worker and their vision of normalizing and even affirming the violence a woman attempted to be raped, kidnapped and under unknown condition has been through results with them not feeling the necessity to investigate this issue. However the laws gives the security forces, investigation and prosecution officer the responsibility to immediately make meticulous research and investigation in order to define the crime, detect the criminals and initiate the legal charges against them, without making any distinction between the women and/or children who are subject to sexual violence, without making any investigation on the private lives of those subject to violence.
We, who pass through these streets everyday, who get on a minibus at this stop every day, expose and denounce the carelessness of the shopkeepers and the police around. We declare that we’ll be standing by our beaten friend at his legal struggle and not let the assailants of this case remain unknown relying on “lack of evidence” claim. We demand that very urgently, the camera records consisting of the period before and after the day of incident is added to the investigation file without any manipulation or erasure on them and a copy given to our beaten friend. Additionally, we remind that every effective examination needed for finding the women who was attacked and kidnapped must be done.
Signed by:
AKA-DER Women Activity, Anarchist Women, Independent Feminists, Bilgi Gökkuşağı LGBT Club, Boğaziçi LuBUnya, Boğaziçi University Women Research Club, Platform on Sexual Violence Against Women, Men Indisposed to Heterosexism and Male Violence, Women of DİSK, Egitim-sen (Education and Science Laborers’ Syndicate) Istanbul Universities Branch Women Commission, Women of Laborers Movement Party, Women from Labor Party, Equality Monitoring Group, Feminist Yaklaşımlar Dergisi (Feminist Approaches Journal), Gökkuşağı Woman Society, Women of Halkevleri, Progressivist Women Solidarity Society (İKD), İMECE Women Syndicate, IMECE City Planning Movement of Society, Istanbul IHD (Human Rights Society) Women Commission, Istanbul LGBTT Solidarity Society, Kadın Kapısı Derneği (Woman’s Door Society), Solidarity with Women Foundation, Kaos GL, Lambdaistanbul LGBTT Solidarity Society, Mor Çatı Women’s Shelter Foundation, MSGSÜ (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University) Flu Baykuş, Women of ÖDP, Pembe Hayat LGBTT Solidarity Society, Socialist Feminist Collective, Socialist Women Assemblies, Social Policies Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Society, RADAR – Istanbul University Homosexual Bisexual and Transgender Group, TMMOB (Turkey Engineers and Architects Chambers Union) Istanbul İKK Women Commission, New Democrat Woman, Women of Greens and Left Future Party.