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Turkey province reports 50 honour killings
28.6.2006
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Killings in the name of
honour claimed 50 lives in Turkey's southeastern
province of Diyarbakir in the past six years, the
Diyarbakir Bar Association's Women's Rights Centre
said on Tuesday.
Women's rights are one of several sticking points in
talks between Turkey and the European Union, which
Ankara wants to join, and Turkey has toughened its
laws to make sure those guilty of such crimes face
life sentences.
In a new penal code passed last year, Turkey
toughened its laws against so-called honour
killings.
Judges who traditionally gave lenient sentences in
such cases can no longer consider honour a
mitigating factor in murder. |
Turkey: Torn between two cultures!! |
The women's rights centre, part of an association of
lawyers, said the 50 deaths led to 59 court cases in
the conservative and underdeveloped province of the
southeast.
Activists say honour killings are particularly
prevalent in the mainly Kurdish southeast, which is
generally more conservative, and poorer, than
western Turkey.
While some women are killed for being perceived as
bringing shame on their family with extramarital
sex, or being raped, a woman who is merely the
subject of rumour or speculation can also become a
victim.
Farda Miran of the Bar Association's Women's Rights
Centre said the figures could be higher as exact
numbers of honour killings are impossible to find as
law enforcement does not always penetrate the dozens
of small villages in the area.
"These numbers only represent the court cases that
have come before us," Miran said.
alarabonline org
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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