Response to Domestic Abuse in Turkey: A feminist analysis

This qualitative research aims to examine domestic abuse in Turkey. Specifically, the research focuses on three key areas in the field of domestic abuse: women’s experiences of domestic abuse by their husbands, women’s experiences with the shelters, and the service providers’ perspectives on domestic abuse in Turkey including their perceptions on the current organizational system in combating domestic abuse and on the women who seek help from their organizations. The data were collected from Ankara and Diyarbakir in Turkey in 2015 from the governmental and non-governmental shelters and organizations in these cities. The research findings indicate that the culture of patriarchy, women’s problematic family background, and their lack of access to the material resources are the main causal factors of domestic abuse, and simultaneously these are also factors for the continuity of domestic abuse. The findings also show that Turkey represents an interesting case in terms of institutional responses. Within the establishment of 6284 numbered law on Family Protection and Preventing Violence against Women in 2012, the state’s responsibilities in combating domestic abuse expanded especially in service provision. In 2013, the Turkish government established a new unit, SONIMs within the scope of 6284 numbered law, indicating a change in the understanding, and support for victims of domestic abuse. The key purpose of the unit was to establish a new organizational support structure through the cooperation and coordination of the various existing domestic abuse organizations and shelters in order to provide immediate support to the victims of abuse and improve the quality of the service provision. However, instead of creating coordination between the shelters the SONIMs started to function as a centre that controls and dominate the domestic abuse shelters that cooperate with them.