Gulsum Kav, founder of We Will Stop Femicide
Femicide - the killing of women and girls because of their gender - is the most extreme form of gender-based violence, but in many countries no record is kept of the number of cases. BBC 100 Women spoke to three women who carry out detective work to identify femicides, and obtain justice for victims.
Gulsum Kav began a campaign to stop femicide in 2010, the year after the dead body of a teenager, Munevver Karabulut, was found in a bin in Istanbul. It took police more than six months to track down the suspect, leading to protests on the streets of Istanbul.
One of Gulsum's goals was to understand how many murders take place Turkey, in which the killer's motive is gender-related.
Another was to provide support to Munevver's family as the case came to trial. "We have a slogan today, 'You will never walk alone,' which came from this," she says.
But soon Gulsum and her fellow activists in We Will Stop Femicide found themselves taking on the role of investigators.
"It started when a letter arrived from a family who believed their daughter had died in suspicious circumstances," she says.
This was the case of Esin Gunes, a young teacher whose body was found at the bottom of a cliff in Siirt province, south-eastern Turkey, in August 2010.
What is femicide?
Esin's husband said they had gone to the area for a walk and a picnic, and she had slipped to her death. While the authorities initially accepted this story, the family didn't, as Esin had only recently returned to her husband after walking out and saying she wanted a divorce.
Gulsum's team commissioned a report which proved it was not physically possible to fall in the way she did and that she must have been thrown. This led to her husband's conviction for murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Gulsum Kav began a campaign to stop femicide in 2010, the year after the dead body of a teenager, Munevver Karabulut, was found in a bin in Istanbul. It took police more than six months to track down the suspect, leading to protests on the streets of Istanbul.
One of Gulsum's goals was to understand how many murders take place Turkey, in which the killer's motive is gender-related.
Another was to provide support to Munevver's family as the case came to trial. "We have a slogan today, 'You will never walk alone,' which came from this," she says.
But soon Gulsum and her fellow activists in We Will Stop Femicide found themselves taking on the role of investigators.
"It started when a letter arrived from a family who believed their daughter had died in suspicious circumstances," she says.
This was the case of Esin Gunes, a young teacher whose body was found at the bottom of a cliff in Siirt province, south-eastern Turkey, in August 2010.
What is femicide?
- Femicide is defined as "the murder of women because they are women" or "the gender-related killing of women and girls"
- Eighteen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have adopted specific laws making femicide a criminal offence
- In many other countries the word is not widely used, but is increasingly being adopted by campaigners against gender-based violence
Gulsum's team commissioned a report which proved it was not physically possible to fall in the way she did and that she must have been thrown. This led to her husband's conviction for murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Since that first case, the team has worked on over 30 suspected femicides. READ MORE...
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