In Van, Fatma, who was 20 years old, had first shot her father who forced her to marry with someone whom she did not love and then she committed suicide. She faced with the tradition by making an end of her body and her life by the weapon of such tradition. We know she is not alone; Fatma was one of the women who have been oppressed under the pressures of patriarchal system and living in the shade of the weapons sanctified by the said system...

 

Did Meryem who was only 12 years old not committed suicide with the Kalashnikov of her fire warden father, just two weeks ago, since she was frighten that the note written "I love you" on it written by her to be sent to her friend found by her teacher and informed to her family! Zeynep who was 20 years old was shot by eight bullets from the gun of her husband waiting for her in Diyarbakýr Bus Station when she turned back to her husband she left. “Right to live” of many women still remain in the barrel of the guns.

 

Same traditions and bullets also threaten the lives of men. Thus, in Diyarbakýr, after two teenagers run off from their homes, cousin Hüseyin Yýlmaz who went to speak with the family of the girl had been shot from his head for not telling where the escapees are. Hüseyin Yýlmaz who wanted to stop honor crime was killed by the angry relatives of the girl' side. 37 years old Yýlmaz was the father of three children. Apparently, when the pressures of traditions and custom laws come together with the spread and easy armament, danger becomes bigger and “right to live” is only composed of a concept.

 

Personal armament always threatens the "right to live" of people first. These tools produced to kill/wound is more than a simple item having a trade value in the market. These meta are not an ordinary consumption item but each one is a killing machine, they consume the human life, they consume the world...

 

Let’s call attention to the data of IANSA (International Action Network on Small Arms) that present the gender mainstreaming and armed violence relationship. According to IANSA, compared to women, more men killed by the weapons. In more than 90% of the murders committed by firearms, victims are men. 88% of 50 thousand people who committed suicide by guns are men.

 

Although the women and girls are not the majority which the armed violence directly go towards, they are affected from the armed violence due to various reasons and from various ways. Lack of legal protection or being in a lower status makes women more undefended. Each year thousands of women and girls are shot by guns, raped, suffered from traumas, made into slaves, frightened and kept under pressure.

 

Especially guns kept in the houses are threatening the lives of the women rather than protecting them. Studies performed in America showed us that, keeping a gun at home increases the risk of family members being killed by 41%. For the women the said risk increases by three-fold. The studies performed in the countries with high income determine that in the places where guns are easily accessible and kept at hand always, women are killed more. Again according to a study performed in America, in the houses where guns are available, the probability of partners such as husband or lover using violence on woman fatally is more than 5-fold. When compared with other types of violence, violence used by the spouses increase the death possibility by 12 times by the usage of guns.

 

Besides all of these researches and determinations IANSA also highlights this: Patterns regarding the gender are established socially. Namely, the relationship between being "man" and "armament" is not the result of being male biologically. In many cultures, women and men are socialized in a way to care / have respect for the violence as a complementary factor of masculine culture.

 

While these facts determined by IANSA referring to many studies is pointing out to the deadliness of the armament, they also show how strong determinants, the cultural structure and social mentality are.  Is not there these reasons generated by this mentality world behind the barrel of the guns directed towards Fatma, Meryem, Zeynep and many other women. The most respected pressure tool/ violence meta and used by the creators of these reasons should be firearms.

 

 

Have a nice week,

Umut Foundation