Thursday, May 25, 2006
Family Values
UN investigates 'forced suicides' in Turkey
By Daniel Howden
Published: 25 May 2006
Yakin Erturk, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, travelled yesterday to the eastern Turkish city of Batman to follow up on reports in local media that up to 36 women had killed themselves since the start of the year. This figure is already much higher than the number for the whole of last year.
Many of the women who have died were allegedly the victims of "forced suicides", where husbands or relatives pushed them into killing themselves to cleanse a perceived offence against family honour.
The family remains paramount across Turkish society and adultery or sex before marriage can be seen as crimes by more socially conservative elements.
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Fundamentalist Christians are only a few short generations from similar behavior. I am willing to bet some secretly envy these Turks who act as "instruments of God's judgment" in enforcing Biblical tenets.
By Daniel Howden
Published: 25 May 2006
Yakin Erturk, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, travelled yesterday to the eastern Turkish city of Batman to follow up on reports in local media that up to 36 women had killed themselves since the start of the year. This figure is already much higher than the number for the whole of last year.
Many of the women who have died were allegedly the victims of "forced suicides", where husbands or relatives pushed them into killing themselves to cleanse a perceived offence against family honour.
The family remains paramount across Turkish society and adultery or sex before marriage can be seen as crimes by more socially conservative elements.
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Fundamentalist Christians are only a few short generations from similar behavior. I am willing to bet some secretly envy these Turks who act as "instruments of God's judgment" in enforcing Biblical tenets.
