384 women applied to Mor Çatı in the first four months of 2012. One out of four women, who filed applications, asked for a shelter.
Mor Çatı Women’s Shelter Association published its report for the first four months of 2012.
384 women filed applications to Mor Çatı from January to April. One out of four women, who filed applications, asked for a shelter. However, due to insufficient number of shelters, most of these women could not be placed to a shelter.
Mor Çatı authorities stated that the law no. 6284 provides women the opportunity to ask for protection from the state but since enough precautions are not taken, this cannot be applied in many cases.
According to the report;
* 475 interviews were made with 384 women, who suffered from violence, in the first 4 months of 2012 at the Mor Çatı solidarity center. These interviews were made face-to-face, via e-mail or letter and telephone.
* 102 women asked for shelter. 79 women asked for psychological and 105 women asked for legal support. 158 women applied just to obtain information or to ask for social support.
* In total 96 husbands asked for women, who they think stays at the shelter, by calling, sending e-mails and sometimes coming to the door of Mor Çatı.
* It was seen that most of the men, who were persistent to make an interview, were saying, "My wife has psychological issues". Another common attitude was that they were trying to use children somehow to reach the women.
* There were men who said that they learned that their wives are at the shelter from the police station and even from the prosecutor. Moreover, in an example, the prosecutor gave an official letter to the husband and asked for information from Mor Çatı.
Mor Çatı stated that most of the women, suffering from violence, are hiding their suffering, they are ashamed of being beaten and that the person, who should in fact be ashamed, is the person who beats them and women can take an initiative only when they notice this truth.
In Turkey, where family violence is very common, only 1931 women can make use of the shelters. There are 86 shelters in total and there are not any shelters in 35 cities. (ÇT)
(bianet.org, 25 July 2012)