Lawyer Berfin Polat: Diyanet trying to prevent divorce, not violence against women

The women’s association Rosa in Amed fights against patriarchal violence and is itself repeatedly the target of attacks by the AKP/MHP regime. Lawyer Berfin Polat works on the board of the association. In this ANF interview, she pointed out that the regime wants to consolidate its authoritarian rule with its attacks on women, the opposition and all social movements.

“They are trying to persuade the women to return home”

The head of the Turkish religious authority Diyanet, notorious for his homophobic statements, Ali Erbaş, announced in January as part of an “action plan against violence against women” that he wanted to offer “spiritual support and religious guidance” in women’s shelters more intensively.

Berfin Polat sees these plans as a direct attack on women. She said: “Diyanet claims that they want to give religious advice to women who are in the process of divorce or who have taken refuge in women’s shelters. We women see it this way: they will try to persuade women [to return home] using religion. Therefore, we do not see any policy in the action plan that prevents violence against women. They’re trying to spread that mentality through women to society as a whole.”

“The payment of alimony is prevented”

Polat also criticized the discriminatory attitude of the Turkish judiciary in divorce proceedings: “Even in divorce proceedings, the judiciary does not take the interests of the woman as a basis. The maintenance rate is 370 TL (23.79 euros). It is about taking women out of education and the salaried labor sector once they have married and forcing them to work in the home. This work in the house is left to the women alone, but if they divorce, then we are faced with a system that prevents the women from receiving the 370 TL alimony.”

Violence on many levels

Polat also spoke of a legal dismantling of women’s rights and physical violence. “Since the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, – she said – this process has escalated, and now some paragraphs of the civil law are also being attacked. The Kurdish women are specifically attacked. Women like Aysel Tuğluk are held in prison and attacked. Although forensic reports state that she cannot stay in prison, her release is prevented. We will show solidarity as women and overcome this phase.”