Films tackle honor killings

‘Ateşin Düştüğü Yer’ (Where the Flame Falls) takes a father and his 17-year-old pregnant daughter on a road trip, where the father prepares to execute the unsuspecting daughter

According to numbers released by a rights organizations and compiled from the press, about one woman every day was killed by a family member, husband, ex-husband or partner in Turkey last year.

Government figures are even more drastic, suggesting murders of women have increased ten-fold in the last decade, from 66 in 2002 to around 1,000 each year over the last few years. Thousands are victims of the cultural and social oxymoron of “honor killings.”

Honor killings have always been a major problem in Turkey, especially in the rural areas of eastern and southeastern Turkey. Until quite recently, Turkish law tended to be lenient to honor killers, with many sentences reduced through claims of “provocation.” Thanks to women’s NGOs, devoted followers of the problem in the media, and the country’s quest to enter the European Union, honor killings were deemed a scarlet letter against Turkey, eventually leading to the introduction of a mandatory life sentence for those found guilty of the crime seven years ago.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)