Turkish Ladies Rally to Re-Instate Death Penalty

Mass protests reemerged on Monday in Istanbul, Turkey; they had started Saturday after a female student was found violently killed following a February 13 rape attempt. The situation is only becoming tenser, as the protestors have moved from accusing the government of sexism to demanding the return of capital punishment in the country.

Hundreds of people reassembled on the streets of Istanbul on Monday. The protestors, mostly women, wore black from head-to-toe, following the call of social media. The protests were prompted by an increased rate of crimes against women, including domestic violence and poor legal protection for women in Turkish courts. On Monday, the demands were very straight-forward – the restoration of the death penalty for this kind of crime, which was officially abolished in 2002.

The same day, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu issued an official statement. He acknowledged that the current law enforcement programs were ineffective and promised to provide a variety of new measures to protect women from violence.

The day before social networks got flooded with stories of violence and abuse, as Turkish women responded to a hashtag #sendeanlat ("You tell, too") emerged on Sunday.

The charred remains of Özgecan Aslan, age 20, were found Friday in the south of Turkey. She was killed in a struggle after the driver of a minibus she was travelling in attempted to rape her. Public outrage emerged the next day, as hundreds of women attended her funeral and proceeded onto the streets to protest the insufficient protection of women; they also demanded that Family and Social Policies Minister Aysenur Islam step down.