Women, Children Turned Away from Shelters in Canada Almost 19,000 Times a Month

When abuse victims try to leave, there's often nowhere to go,

CBC investigation finds

It would be great if pastors of churches across Canada asked for stable families to open their

homes to these desperate women. It could be a temporary solution or a full-time ministry.

The government could provide tax credits or even small payments to help with costs.

Tara Carman · CBC News 

Michelle, pictured here in Langley, B.C., had to call shelters in B.C.'s Fraser Valley multiple times before she was admitted because there was no space. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)

This story is part of Stopping Domestic Violence, a CBC News series looking at the crisis of intimate partner violence in Canada and what can be done to end it.

One cold night in Montreal last December, Hamidah decided she'd had enough.

Her husband had become enraged while they were talking. He kicked her in the chest, knocking her down, and then punched her in the face several times while she was on the ground.

It wasn't the first time he had hit her. It usually happened when she refused to have sex with him.

"Why are you beating me? Why are you doing this to me?" she recalls saying through her tears.

"And he said, 'You don't listen to me, you should do whatever I want … you should obey me. You don't have any right to say no to me.'"

Of course, this is Muslim philosophy. Women have no rights in Islam, many are required to dress in such a way as to be invisible, lest a man be tempted by an ankle of a wisp of hair.

All the while, the couple's four-year-old son was within earshot.

When it was over, Hamidah, who is 26, was left with a black eye and bruises all over her face.

She told her husband she needed some air. She took her son, went outside and called 911.

The two waited outside their home, in subzero temperatures, for over an hour.

When police arrived, they called five or six women's shelters in Montreal. None had any room for Hamidah and her son.

She asked the police where she could go. An officer told her to keep calling shelters.

Holding her son's hand as the snow fell around them, Hamidah started to cry.

Hundreds turned away

Hamidah is not her real name, and the CBC has agreed to protect her identity out of concern for her safety.

Her situation is not unique.

A sign on the wall at a transition house in Langley, B.C. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)

A CBC News analysis reveals that in November 2019, an average of 620 women and children a day were turned away from domestic violence shelters across Canada. That's nearly 19,000 times a month, if November was typical.

The true number is likely much higher. Shelter workers in several locations told CBC that in fact numbers are lower in November, because women are reluctant to leave their families as the holiday season nears. 

CBC's data is also incomplete. CBC reporters heard back from just over half the 527 shelters we identified, meaning this figure does not include the people turned away from about 220 shelters.

In more than 80 per cent of cases, people were turned away because the shelter was full.

Not only is the number of people turned away each day in the hundreds, it is also growing. Statistics Canada figures show the number increased 69 per cent from 539 in 2014 to 911 in 2018, based on data from all of the shelters in the country.

Lise Martin, executive director of Women's Shelters Canada, says a nationally coordinated approach is needed to help women and children fleeing domestic violence. ( Mathieu Theriault/CBC)

Calling a shelter for help is a big decision, and having to turn away women and children who are in danger has serious consequences, said Lise Martin, executive director of Women's Shelters Canada.

It may mean someone with nowhere else to go is forced to live with their abuser longer.

Hamidah and her son went back home that night. They had nowhere else to go.

She called shelters the next day, too, but there was still no room for them. Some said they would call her if a space opened up, but none ever did. 

'It's OK that he beats you'

She called her family in Afghanistan and told them she wanted to separate from her husband, hoping they would offer support.

"They told me no, it's OK that he beats you," she said. They told her she wouldn't be able to make it on her own in Canada, as a woman, without her husband. 

More Muslim misogynistic philosophy!

"I have no hope from shelters, no hope from my parents, no hope from my husband. I'm alone with all that stress and with my son … I was totally in a dark place."

Hamidah decided she would end her own life. 

Happening across Canada

Shelters serving women in Montreal are almost always full, said Manon Monastesse, executive director of the Quebec Federation of Women's Shelters.

Women's shelters in Quebec serve not only those fleeing domestic violence, but also victims of sex trafficking, forced marriage and some homeless women, Monastesse explained. The population is growing, and there have been very few women's shelters built in the past decade.

Forced marriages are not exclusive to Islam but are another feature of it, including child brides and multiple brides.

Manon Monastesse, the executive director of the Quebec Federation of Women's Shelters, says the number of women and children turned away from shelters in the Montreal area is a growing problem. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)

But the problem is not limited to Quebec.

CBC's analysis found domestic violence shelters are forced to turn women and children away in significant numbers in all of Canada's major cities.

Nationally, the biggest contributing factor is a lack of affordable housing, said Martin, the director of Women's Shelters Canada. 

Younger women speaking up

This puts rents out of reach for many of the women who use the shelters and keeps some living with their abusers.

Another factor is greater awareness of intimate partner violence. Both Martin and Monastesse said shelter clients are increasingly younger women who are less willing to put up with abuse and are leaving relationships earlier than was the case in the past.

Even when women are able to get into emergency shelters, their stay is often limited to between one and three months. The lack of affordable housing makes it difficult to find somewhere to go after that and some women return to their abusers.

Michelle, whose last name CBC is not reporting, fled to a transition house in B.C.'s Fraser Valley after months of psychological and sometimes physical abuse.

But she had just 30 days to find another place to live and couldn't find anything she could afford. Faced with what she was told would be a two-year wait for subsidized housing, she returned to her former partner, who said he had changed.

Michelle, pictured here at a Langley, B.C. women's shelter, returned to her abusive partner when she couldn't find affordable housing. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)

Within months, the abuse started again and quickly escalated. Michelle began to fear for her safety. She called several women's shelters, but they were all full.

"I have to survive again until I can … find a way into a transition house," she recalled thinking. "What am I supposed to do? I was really scared."

Last month, Michelle called a shelter just when a spot opened up and was told she had hours to take the available bed. She is now desperately searching for a permanent place to call home.

'I have nothing'

On a cold December morning not long before Christmas, Hamidah woke up without hope.

She fed her son breakfast and dressed him. She asked her husband to take him to daycare. 

When they were gone, Hamidah wrote a note, explaining she was ending her life "because no one understands me. I have no hope."

She sent her husband a text message telling him she was about to commit suicide and asking him to take care of their son.

And then the world went dark.

Traumatic for shelter staff

Workers on the front lines who must tell women in need there is no room at the shelter say the experience is traumatic. 

Chandra Evanson, who works at Dixon House in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, said staff turn away about half the requests for shelter they receive because there is no space. Sometimes this means refusing several people per day.

Chandra Evanson, who works at Dixon House in Burnaby, B.C., says having to tell women in need there is no room at the shelter takes a personal toll. (Submitted by Chandra Evanson)

"To say no to somebody who I know has children who may be returning to an unsafe situation is just extremely upsetting for me," she said. "I don't even know how to put it into words to know that a mom is struggling to protect her children and may not be able to do that." 

Evanson refers them elsewhere, but knows other shelters in Vancouver's Lower Mainland are often at or near capacity as well.

National plan needed

What's needed, Martin said, is a nationally co-ordinated plan to ensure women and children in danger have a safe place to go.

The federal government has the funds through the national housing strategy to build more shelters, she explained, but it's provincial governments that are responsible for staffing and running them. 

Provinces also fund programs such as counselling that are needed by abuse survivors, and crucially, subsidized housing.

The federal minister responsible for women and gender equality, Maryam Monsef, said in an interview with CBC News that the government has started work on a co-ordinated national plan to address gender-based and intimate partner violence, but she would not commit to a timeline.

Maryam Monsef, the federal minister of Women and Gender Equality, says the federal government is developing a national strategy on intimate partner violence. (Kate Bueckert/CBC)

Part of that is support for subsidized housing through the national housing strategy, Monsef said, adding that she has heard the call from women's advocacy groups to use some of that money to specifically help women and children fleeing domestic violence.

'I am safe'

Hamidah could hear her husband speaking, but wasn't able to move or talk. 

Paramedics arrived and placed an oxygen mask over her mouth. They took her to the hospital.

"I told the doctor that I'm in a relationship that didn't work for me and I want to go in a place where I cannot see my husband … if I go back to home, I will do the same thing, I will … end my life."

A social worker met with Hamidah while she was in hospital and arranged a place in a shelter. 

When Hamidah was discharged, the hospital called a taxi. But in the 10 minutes it took the taxi to get there, Hamidah's husband and son arrived. 

Her son was delighted to see her, yelling and smiling and hugging his mother. Hamidah couldn't bear to leave him.

So she went home with her husband.

But in her hand was a tiny piece of paper, which she hid as soon as she got home: the address of the shelter.

Two days later, she went to a convenience store late at night, while her husband was at work. She called the shelter and asked if they still had a place for her. They did.

The shelter called a taxi, and Hamidah left with her son. 

When she woke up in the morning, in a safe place with her son by her side, Hamidah said she felt something in her had changed.

"I have no stress. I am safe, I have hope, and my husband is not here."

"It's paradise for me."

The two will be able to stay in the shelter until a subsidized apartment opens up. 

In the meantime, Hamidah works as a cook and hopes to finish high school.

Sharing her story with others at the shelter and hearing their stories gave Hamidah courage to go forward, she said. 

"We are strong and we are going to be strong."

If you need help and are in immediate danger, call 911. To find assistance in your area click here.

To read all the stories in CBC's Stopping Domestic Violence series, visit cbc.ca/stoppingdomesticviolence

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tara Carman

Data Journalist

Tara Carman is an investigative journalist who specializes in finding the stories buried in big data. She has more than a decade of experience reporting in B.C., across Canada and overseas. She joined CBC News in February 2017. You can reach her at tara.carman@cbc.ca or on Twitter @tarajcarman.

With files from Erica Johnson, Enza Uda and Julie Ireton

Out of Islam: Stories of Women Attempting to Escape Their Uber-Misogynistic Muslim Families

Escape bids by rebel princesses

throw spotlight on UAE rights

Stuart WILLIAMS and Lucie PEYTERMANN

AFP

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktum (C) and his wife Princess Haya (R) are locked in a legal battle in the UK over the welfare of their children (AFP Photo/Karim SAHIB)

Paris (AFP) - Princess Haya, who is battling her husband Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum in a UK court, is the third princess who has sought to escape the Gulf emirate in recent years.

Activists say the attempts by Haya and two of Sheikh Mohammed's daughters to escape the United Arab Emirates (UAE) throw a harsh spotlight on the country's rights record, even as it tries to present a glitzy and modern image to the West.

In 2000, Sheikha Shamsa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum tried to escape the family's entourage during a holiday in England, but was reportedly picked up two months later and forcibly returned to Dubai.

And in 2018, another daughter, Sheikha Latifa, fled Dubai before being allegedly captured at sea off India. Supporters released a harrowing video, purportedly by her, in which she describes her living conditions.

Princess Haya, 45, the half-sister of Jordan's King Abdullah and an equestrian competitor in the Olympics for her native Jordan, surfaced this year in Britain where she has applied for a forced marriage protection order.

- 'Endemic failings' -

The cases have tarnished efforts by Sheikh Mohammed, who is also prime minister of the UAE and a familiar figure on the global horse racing circuit as founder of the Godolphin stables, to present Dubai as a contemporary model in the Middle East.

The city has expanded exponentially in recent years as its rulers turned it into a global investment and tourism hub no longer dependent on energy revenues.

In November 2018, Dubai hosted a world tolerance summit that was denounced by rights groups as brazen hypocrisy given its record on human rights.

A new edition of the event, scheduled for November, will take place under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed with the aim to "strengthen the UAE's stance to be a model for tolerance and positive coexistence".

Rights groups accuse the UAE of holding opponents without legal basis, including award-winning rights activist Ahmed Mansoor, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018 on accusations of spreading false information.

Prominent academic Nasser Bin Ghaith was also handed a 10-year jail term in 2017 over a series of tweets criticising the UAE authorities.

Human Rights Watch said in July that the UAE was continuing to hold at least five Emirati prisoners, including an activist and members of a registered Islamist political movement, even after they completed their sentences.

Contacted by AFP, the UK-based group Detained in Dubai, which says it assists people or companies caught up in the UAE's legal system, said: "The cases of Princess Latifa and Princess Haya highlight many of the endemic failings, if not legalised abuses, that plague the UAE legal system."

The failings of the UAE's legal system were "particularly sharp in relation to the rights of women," it added.

Emirati media used to extensively cover the movements of Haya, who in 2016 said of her husband that "every single day I thank God that I am lucky enough to be close to him." But the last story about Haya from the official WAM news agency dates back to February.

Latifa's story

Latifa (L) was not seen in public until images emerged of her in December 2018 with former Irish president

Mary Robinson (R) in Dubai (AFP Photo/STRINGER)

Latifa's disappearance was a source of international intrigue, with supporters claiming she was captured on a yacht in March 2018 during an escape bid and forcibly returned to Dubai.

She was not seen in public until images emerged of her in Dubai meeting the former UN human rights chief and former Irish president Mary Robinson.

Robinson confirmed Latifa had planned her escape and recorded a video, and described her as "clearly troubled."

After her disappearance, supporters released a video which they said Latifa recorded before her escape bid, where she launched a scathing attack on her father, saying he only cared about his reputation.

"If you are watching this video it is not such a good thing. Either I am dead or in a really bad situation," says the woman in the video, who claimed to be Latifa.

Shamsa's story is very brief

Echoing British press reports from the time, the woman said "my sister Shamsa" had tried to escape in England in 2000 but was then abducted by "bunch of guys" after two months on the run and returned to Dubai via France.

Now "she has no freedom, she has a psychiatrist with her and she is surrounded by nurses."

The circumstances surrounding Shamsa's disappearance are even more mysterious, and she has not been seen in public for almost two decades.

'He will never stop looking for us':

Saudi Sisters who Fled Allegedly Abusive Father

Seek Asylum in Canada

Dua and Dalal al-Showaiki say their father tried to

force them to marry older men

CBC Radio 

Saudi sisters Dua, left, and Dalal al-Showaiki have been hiding in Istanbul for six weeks from their father, who they claim abused them for having dreams of independence and tried to force them to marry older, religious men. (Submitted by Toby Cadman)

Two Saudi sisters who have been hiding in Istanbul for six weeks after fleeing years of alleged abuse by their father are hoping to be granted asylum in Canada.

Dua, 22, and Dalal al-Showaiki, 20, describe their father as controlling and abusive and say he tried to force them to abandon their dreams of independence in order to marry older, religious men.

After years of contemplating their escape, the sisters said they made the drastic decision to flee on June 10 while on a family vacation in Turkey's largest city.

"We didn't have, like, anyone to help us," Dua told The Current, speaking from their 11th safe house in Istanbul. "We didn't have any choice. Just run away."

It's so hard for me to live in Saudi Arabia.

I don't have any future there.

- Dua al-Showaiki

Dalal describes her family life as a "jail" in which she is unable to make her own decisions. "If sometimes my father told us, like, 'This morning, you can't go to school at your college.' I can't complain to anyone."

The situation is worse for Dua, who realized as a teen that she was gay. Homosexuality is considered a crime in Saudi Arabia and is punishable by death or flogging.

"It's so hard for me to live in Saudi Arabia," she said. "I don't have any future there."

The getaway

During the family vacation, Dua and Dalal say their father seized their passports and money before locking them in a hotel room. When he opened the door to use the bathroom, the sisters say they were ready — wearing shoes and with cellphones in hand — to make a dash for the exit.

"I was running, I don't know where I must go. But I was hiding in the streets," Dua recalled.

The recent high-profile getaways of other Arab women — Saudi Arabia's Rahaf Mohammed, Dubai princess Sheikha Latifa, and Saudi sisters Maha and Wafa al-Subaie — almost thwarted their plan. They said their family was on high alert, attuned to the possibility.

After making their escape, the sisters then reached out to an online network of Saudi women for help.

"I told them that I am on the street. I don't have any place to go … and they helped me," Dua said. "They know people in Turkey and they [gave] me their contact."

Dua and Dalal have been hiding in Istanbul for 50 days. After making their escape, they relied on an online network of Saudi women for help finding a safe house. (DuaDalal/Twitter)

The sisters have been holed up in Istanbul ever since, taking to social media to publicize their plight and campaign for asylum in Canada.

Dua and Dalal spend most of their time indoors and move frequently for fear their father will find them and forcibly bring them back to their home country. Turkey is one of a handful of countries that Saudis can travel to without a prior visa.

"He will never stop looking for us, so he can clear the shame," said Dalal.

She believes if they were to return to their home in the port city of Jeddah, about 90 kilometres east of Mecca, her father would kill them or have them thrown in jail, where they would be subject to torture.

The sisters say their getaway and public campaign has also led them to receive a steady stream of online threats.

Life free of oppression

Asked why they have chosen Canada as their preferred destination, Dalal says it's because it's a safe place. "They support gay people, they support ex-Muslims and everyone," she said

🇸🇦 Dua & Dalal 🇸🇦

@DuaDalal

 I'm Dua and my sister Dalal have fled from Saudi Arabia to Turkey. My father wanted to marry us to old men and religious militants. We were beaten and harassed. We were threatened with imprisonment in the Women's Welfare Center,#SaveDuaandDalal

 #SaudiSistersRescue @hrw_ar

Toby Cadman, a British lawyer who has been advising the sisters, says he has credible evidence that family members may try to compel Turkish authorities to illegally return Dua and Dalal to Saudi Arabia. 

"The environment in Turkey is really not safe," he said, referencing a large number of Saudi nationals who visit the country each year.

The sisters are currently waiting for their application to be processed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is responsible for determining which refugee cases to refer to Canada.

In an email to The Current, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said the office is unable to comment on the sisters' case due to privacy regulations.

"Individuals cannot apply directly for resettlement to Canada, nor can they make claims at an Embassy of Canada," Mathieu Genest wrote. "The UNHCR determines which cases to refer to Canada and will request expedited processing when appropriate."

Asylum seekers whose claims are determined to be eligible will get a hearing at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, he said, which will select "foreign nationals for resettlement who have no reasonable prospect of finding another durable solution."

Toby Cadman, centre, is a British lawyer who has been advising the sisters on their asylum claim. He says he hopes they will have a chance at a normal life.  (Submitted by Toby Cadman)

Cadman is optimistic their case will warrant an urgent decision by UNHCR and says he hopes the sisters will have a chance at "a life like you and I would consider to be normal."

"We've already heard about the system of abuse, which we know exists in Saudia Arabia," he told The Current.

"You also have two individuals that have been subjected to physical and mental abuse over a number of years. They've also been subjected to sexual abuse by family members in an environment where no care is given to protect them."

The Saudi embassy in Ottawa did not respond to The Current's request for comment.

Plight of women's rights

Saudi Arabia has a long history of brutally punishing those who demand equality, defend women's rights and advocate for social reform.

It consistently ranks among the world's worst countries for women's rights and equality. The World Economic Forum positioned it 141 out of 149 in its 2018 report on gender equality.

The country's highly restrictive guardianship laws require women to be granted permission from a male relative to work, travel abroad, marry and receive certain kinds of medical treatment.

This past spring, a sweep of arrests targeting individuals supportive of women's rights and those with ties to jailed activists saw 12 people detained. Women who have stood trial for charges related to their activism have told court they were abused during interrogations.

Asked if they would resettle in another country if it offered them asylum before Canada, the sisters replied they'd be willing to go nearly anywhere.

"If anyone in any country agreed to take us, of course, we're going to go," Dua said.

Maha and Wafa al-Subaie

Saudi sisters Wafa and Maha granted asylum

By Anne-Marie Bissada

Sisters Maha and Wafa al-Subaie post a photo of themselves leaving Georgia

The two Saudi sisters who made international headlines in April seeking help to leave Georgia before their family or officials forced them back to Saudi Arabia, have finally been offered asylum in an undisclosed location.

It was a story that made headlines as sisters Maha and Wafa fled their abusive family and arrived in Georgia 17 April where they started to ask for help in relocation to a third country.

“We decided to leave Saudi Arabia because life there had become unbearable from the torture. We were threatened and abused daily by our family, father and mother and brothers,” Maha had said in an interview with RFI.

In direct contact with RFI and other news outlets, the sisters explained that they had been planning to leave since 2014 after their lives had become unbearable from the constant repression at the hands of their family and the government.

Under the Saudi male guardianship system, a woman, regardless of her age, is under constant surveillance by an official male guardian.

Easy access to Georgia

Georgia is one of the few countries that Saudi citizens can travel to without a visa, making it an easier destination for the girls to get to.

But ultimately, the longer they waited there, the more precarious their situation became as twitter trolls, reportedly from their family, began harassing them and tweeting threats to the sisters.

Your face does not indicate torture, you are lies, you do not deserve asylum there are women who deserve it more than you

  amss (@amss70535077) April 22, 2019

Under Islamic law it is not permissible to scar or bruise a Muslim woman's face. Beatings must occur elsewhere on the body.

The UNHCR did work with the sisters in helping them find a safe place in Georgia.

Success story

In the end, a tweet and a photo telling their supporters that they had finally been accepted in a third country.

Rima. 🦋

@rima246

 "As we settle in our new home and life we will continue to support Saudi women. Your sweet and thoughtful messages helped us through some very hard times." 

Beautiful message from @GeorgiaSisters2 to the thousands who signed their petition: https://www.change.org/p/unhcr-help-resettle-saudi-sisters-maha-and-wafa-al-subaie-to-a-third-safe-country/u/24531500 …

For the time being as they settle into their new lives, the sisters have asked for privacy from the media.

The location of their new home is also not known, to ensure their safety.

Maha and Wafa al-Subaie have left Georgia

Twitter / @GeorgiaSisters2

While the sisters and other girls fleeing the Saudi Kingdom have found a happy ending, others have not been lucky as in the case of Dina Ali Lasloom.

She made it as far as the Philippines in 2017, but was then forced back to the kingdom. Her current whereabouts and condition remain unknown.

‘Used as a Ticket’: Victim of Forced Marriage Hits Out at UK’s Inaction on Spousal Visas

© Nicolas Economou/Global Look Press

A British victim of forced marriage has hit out at the government’s inaction in investigating claims of unwanted spousal visas, telling RT that the scale of men coming to the UK through the practice is “massive.”

Sunny Angel, twice a victim of forced marriage, described that Indian men asking her family to marry her had hoped to “use her as a ticket” to the UK by gaining a visa through marriage.

“[As] the victims, we don’t want them here,” she added.

Her harrowing experience comes as an investigation by The Times found that the Home Office had turned a “blind eye” to dozens of attempts by women to block visas for spouses they were forced to marry in countries such as Pakistan, the UAE, India, and Bangladesh. Of the 88 attempts by women to block the spousal visa last year, only 42 were addressed by the Home Office.

Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of the UK-based charity Karma Nirvana Charity Group, told RT she fears part of the reason for the government’s lack of response was a “fear of offending communities.”

“In these cases, the victims themselves reported that they didn’t want this person to come to the country and yet still, what the data tells us... was that these visas were still allowed,” Sanghera said.

“We have these people living in Britain now as a result of our victim being forced into a marriage.”

Victims are revictimized by the government's unwillingness to address political correctness. I wonder how many parents of victims of forced marriages get paid a lot of money to turn their daughters into sex slaves so undeserving men can enter the UK?

The Home Office has said that an urgent investigation is underway.

The horror of forced marriages

video 4:49

Turkey's 'Bleeding Wound', Violence Against Women

Some 3,000 abusers, rapists marry victims

to avoid jail - Turkish appeals court

Turkish women display photographs of slain student, Özgecan Aslan, who was killed while resiting an attempted rape, and other victims of violence against women during a demonstration in Ankara on June 12, 2015. © Adem Altan / AFP

Marry your victim; get away with rape:

Up to 3,000 rapists and abusers in Turkey have married their victims in order to avoid prosecution, a senior official from the country's Supreme Court of Appeals has said, local media reports.

Speaking to the parliament's Sexual Abuse Prevention and Investigation Commission, set up to investigate sexual crimes, the head of the Supreme Court of Appeals department Mustafa Demirdag said kids as young as five years old could fall prey to sexual abuse. According to Demirdag, girls between 12 and 15 years old appeared to be more easily deceived by abusers.

The official said the number of officially registered marriages between the victims and their abusers had reached nearly 3,000, the Milliyet daily reported, adding that sentences of 16 years and eight months in prison were given in case where a complaint was filed.

What kind of life can a girl expect to live if forced, and they are forced - there's no real alternative, to marry their rapist? A husband with no respect for his wife is going to continue the abuse for the rest of her life. This law needs to be overturned and alternatives for pregnant or raped girls must be developed, such as state sponsored education and housing,

Demirdag said that one of the testimonies received by the court reminded him of the plot of a popular Turkish TV drama series called “Fatmagül’ün suçu ne?” (What is Fatmagül’s Crime?).


Unbelievable!

“Three persons kidnapped a girl and raped her, but when one of them married her, the sentences for the three were lifted. It is an outrage to force someone to marry a person she does not want to marry and force her to live together for the rest of her life,” Demirdag said.

Violence against women is a pressing issue in Turkey with over 300 women killed last year, usually by their husbands, boyfriends or other family members, Reuters reported, citing media reports.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the issue as Turkey's "bleeding wound" after a 20-year-old woman, traveling home on a minibus in the province of Mersin, was stabbed and beaten to death trying to fight off a man trying to rape her. Ozgecan Aslan's brutal murder provoked public outrage and drew mass protests across Turkey. In December last year, three men were sentenced to life imprisonment for Aslan's murder. A lawyer for the girl's family, Efkan Bolac, said the ruling should serve as a precedent in Turkey, where courts are notorious for being too soft on men who kill women.

Aslan is Turkey's equivalent to the Delhi bus gang-rape and murder of a university student. It sparked many protests and changes in law and processing, but there is little to show for it in the attitude of Indian men toward women.

Turkey has long been plagued by allegations of domestic violence against women. A 2011 Human Rights Watch report, “‘He Loves You, He Beats You’: Family Violence in Turkey and Access to Protection,” documented "brutal and long-lasting violence" in Turkey against "women and girls that in some cases lasted for decades, affecting several generations of women." 

Researchers said women and girls were "raped, stabbed, kicked in the abdomen when pregnant, beaten with hammers, sticks, branches, and hoses to the point of broken bones and fractured skulls. [They were] locked up with dogs or other animals, starved, shot with a stun gun, injected with poison, pushed off a roof and subjected to severe psychological violence."