Source: Common Dreams
by Jessie Williams
“‘It will be like the Taliban regime,’ says Melek Onder, asked what will happen to women’s rights if Recep Tayyip Erdogan is re-elected as president of Turkey in the election on Sunday. Onder is a spokesperson for We Will Stop Femicides (Kadin Cinayetlerini Durduracagiz), one of the most active groups in Turkey’s women’s movement. The platform was founded in 2010 after Cem Garipoglu, 17, murdered his girlfriend Munevver Karabulut, also 17. It collects data on femicides and campaigns against violence against women. ‘We see that all kinds of dictators do the same — at the beginning they take away women’s rights, and then they ban other things, like music,’ says the 35-year-old as she sips tea in a coffee shop in the Sisli district of Istanbul. ‘[Erdogan’s government] is a threat — not only for women, but also for men. They are against modernity.'” (05/13/23)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/women-s-rights-turkey-elections