Istanbul Convention: More than a thousand Turkish women demonstrate for their rights

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Protests in Istanbul: Another rally has been announced for July 1st

Photo: Resul Kaboglu / imago images / NurPhoto

In Istanbul, more than a thousand women took to the streets against Turkey's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention against Violence against Women.

"Istanbul Convention, we are part of it," read the banners with which the demonstrators marched through the Maltepe district.

According to the organizers, the participants had traveled to Istanbul from more than 70 Turkish provinces.

With their protest, the women want to get President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan back his announcement that he will resign from the Istanbul Convention on July 1st.

According to the AFP news agency, women's organizations have planned another rally for the day.

The Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe is the world's first binding agreement of its kind. It requires the signatory states to take action against domestic violence, as well as against marital rape and female genital mutilation.

The 46 signatory states, including Germany, also undertake to better protect women and girls from violence by prosecuting the perpetrators.

"Violence" does not only include physical violence, but also gender-specific discrimination, intimidation or economic exploitation.

Erdoğan's decision was accommodating to conservative and Islamist circles in Turkey.

They had called for the resignation on the grounds that the Istanbul Convention harms family unity and promotes divorces and homosexuality.

Critics of Erdoğan's decision, on the other hand, fear that even more women will become victims of violence in the future.

Last year more than 300 women were killed in Turkey, according to the platform »We will stop femicides«, this year the number was already 177.

ime / AFP