On the 25th of November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we call
upon all women to take to struggle against violence against women and to demand freedom for
political women prisoners.
Today across the world violence against women continues to be perpetrated and every few hours a
woman is murdered by a man. This violence is being experienced in a particularly severe way by
women in prisons. Raids on cells, torture, strip searches, rape, 24 hour surveillance, forced inspections
by soldiers and male guards, seizure of hygiene products, and torture such as being hogtied are
examples of the violence and attacks against women prisoners.
One of the gravest problems facing female prisoners in prisons in Turkey is ill patients being
abandoned to die by not being released. According to data from İHD (İnsan Hakları Derneği [Human
Rights Association]), there are currently 123 ill female prisoners in prisons in Turkey. Sick women
prisoners are often not treated, and during transfer to hospitals, they are tortured in transportation
vehicles. They are often subjected to examinations whilst still in handcuffs and under military and
police supervision.
In prisons in Turkey, revolutionary women prisoners are subjected to strip searches, those who refuse
having their clothes torn and being forcibly strip-searched. Forced strip searches imposed on female
prisoners are thus turned into a method of inflicting physical and psychological trauma and result in
trauma for the prisoners.
Many sick prisoners are kept in solitary confinement. Dilek Arsu suffering from hemorrhaging in
Kayseri Bunyan Prison and Zeynep Avcı, who suffers from diabetes and a cardiac valve problem, in
Mersin Tarsus C-type prison are just two examples of sick prisoners being kept in solitary
confinement.
Mizgin Kayıtbey, Lale Kabişen and Nazlıcan Barışer, currently imprisoned in Patnos L-type prison,
after objecting to the count being performed by male guards, were attacked and subjected to torture
by 40 guards who stormed their dormitory. Following this, they were hogtied and made to wait for
four hours. The potentially lethal use of hogtying as torture shows clearly the extent to which the
fascist state has ramped up its attacks against female prisoners.
Revolutionary women imprisoned in the struggle against the patriarchal world system, against
capitalist-colonialist forces and for a gender-equal world, are subjected to sexual assault as well as
attacks and violations of their basic rights.
In every place where women are attacked by the state’s forces, by their spouse, partner or another
man, the violence continually perpetrated against women is encouraged through the absence of
repercussions.
We call on all women to take to the streets on this International Day for the Elimination of Violence
against Women, to grow the struggle against violence against women, to demand freedom for all
women prisoners and to say no to male violence against women.
No to violence against women!
Prisoners’ Voice Platform (TSP)
