International Women's Day

Baroness Hussein-Ece Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hussein-Ece]

My Lords, I too pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, for securing this important debate and giving us an opportunity to contribute. I also congratulate all the women who made such excellent maiden speeches today.

Last Saturday, I was a guest at an event organised by the Association of Turkish Women in the UK, an umbrella organisation. It was a fundraising event for Mor Çati—it means “purple roof”—a shelter for women fleeing domestic violence in Istanbul. It receives no government funding and relies on volunteers. Violence against women and girls is shockingly universal and one of the most widespread human rights violations around the world. It is widespread in rich and poor countries. In Turkey, as in other parts of the world, in the past few years the protection of women has improved from a legal perspective. However, it is in practice, through education and enforcement, that we really need change.

Some say that countries such as Turkey, seen as a patriarchal society where domestic violence is seen as a way to maintain power in relationships both in public and at home, have higher incidence of violence against women. Although the issue of violence against women has received relatively more government and public attention in recent years, many Turkish women still do not have the courage to express their need for help. The Mor Çati Kadin Siginagi Vafki, the Purple Roof Women's Shelter Foundation, established in 1990 in Istanbul, was the first women's organisation in Turkey involved in the protection and support of women experiencing domestic violence.

The year of 1987 holds special importance for the women's movement in Turkey. For the first time, a group of feminists organised a resistance campaign following a judge's comment, in turning down a woman's claim for divorce, that:

“a little ‘whip’ on the back or on the belly is of no harm to women”.

As your Lordships can imagine, this caused widespread anger and demonstrations, and was a catalyst for bringing women together to organise and campaign under the banner of, “There is no legal violence”. A solidarity network was created with the support of doctors and lawyers. In January 1989, a telephone helpline was created offering legal and practical support for victims of violence. Eventually, the Mor Çati refuge was established. There is consensus that crimes of so-called honour emanate from cultural and not religious roots, and they can be found worldwide, mainly in patriarchal societies or communities. Honour, for men, is connected with women's behaviour because they are seen as the property of the family and of the community. When women violate those standards, that is deemed a direct blow to the man's sense of identity.

In 1990, together with a small group of Turkish, Turkish Cypriot and Kurdish women, I set up the first domestic violence project for women from those communities in London. It was in the aftermath of a number of high-profile cases where women were attacked, and in a few cases killed, by their husbands. One woman was stabbed to death in the street in Hackney outside her house when her husband was let out on bail after attacking her. She was not told that he was going to be released. That cost her her life.

It was a struggle, and no exaggeration to say that we were subjected to threats and intimidation from men from those communities, who were threatened by our work. I was accused of working to separate women from their husbands, but we persevered. We secured premises and funding. Today, Imece, the Turkish-speaking women's project in Islington, which is still going strong, remains one of my proudest achievements. It has helped thousands of women and has saved many lives.

Much has improved in the intervening years in increased public awareness, zero tolerance and prevention—letting women know that they can get help. In London a few years ago, I was moved by the case where a Kurdish father was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for murdering his 15 year-old daughter, Tulay, because she fell in love with a man. In passing sentence, the judge told the court:

“He killed his own daughter because he believed that she had shamed him, his conviction today shows that the true shame was, and always will be his to bear”.

Her body has never been found.

My grandmothers had marriages arranged for them at the age of 14. They had no schooling. My mother went to school until she was 12, and she was the first girl in her family to go to school. She had an arranged marriage when she arrived in the UK. For me, just one generation later, to be here in your Lordships' House, is considered astonishing.

I pay tribute to the generations who have gone before me, who made it possible and make the sacrifices. They gave me a passion to fight for equality and social justice. Ending violence against women is one of the five priority areas that UN Women will be focusing on, and for the millennium development goals. We must not take our foot off that accelerator.