For Turkish women, 2024 has been a highly challenging year. While femicide rates increased relentlessly, protests against violence against women got much stronger. As this high rate of femicides shocked people, Turkish women felt empowered to work harder.
Women in Türkiye have faced manifold challenges in the last years. In 2022, the Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum ranked Türkiye as 124th out of 146 participating countries on gender equality, whereas on health and survival, Türkiye placed 99th. Even though Türkiye has been fighting against gender discrimination for many years, the concern became much worse in 2024.
In October 2024, femicides in Türkiye were at an especially high level, in fact, the highest of the past 14 years, with 48 women killed just in one month. According to data obtained by Anıtsayaç from the first 10 months of 2024, 357 women were killed by men, whereas nearly half of them were by their own partners. These are very tragic statistics and more than just numbers: Each number represents a woman whose life has been taken away, often by someone very close to her. There were several outstanding femicide news stories that were on top of Türkiye’s agenda for many weeks, the most impactful and tragic ones being Ayşenur Halil, Ikbal Uzuner and 8-year-old Narin.
Turkish women continue to fight against gender discrimination and violence against women by protesting and working to educate themselves as strongly as possible. Despite all these tragedies, Turkish women continued to achieve remarkable successes and to bring pride to their country. Türkiye was represented globally in many different fields by successful Turkish women. One of them is Nejla Işık. She is actually the only Turkish woman to enter the 2024 BBC 100 Women list through her powerful climate activism. The list consists of 100 women who have made a positive impact on their community and taken initiative to solve threatening issues worldwide. As the head of İkizköy Village in western Türkiye, she has been fighting to protect Akbelen Forest from mining projects with the support of other villagers. The protests she led protected the Akbelen Forest and she became such an inspiring figure in Türkiye.
“This recognition is not just for me,” Işık said. “Behind me stands an entire village, particularly brave women who never gave up hope and faced every challenge head-on. I accept this achievement as an award for all women in Türkiye who stand for justice and the environment.”
Another inspiring woman of 2024 was Eda Erdem. She is a Turkish volleyball player and the captain of the national team that had a very successful season this year, as well as being a women’s rights activist. She was nominated for the international Brave Women Award that is given to successful and impactful women every year by the Foreign Minister of the US. Furthermore, on 8 March 2024 International Women's Day, a statue of Eda Erdem was built in İstanbul. She described her gratitude for the statue with these words: “The planting of my statue was a matter of many years, it is an incredible feeling for me that it has been realized. Every day when I pass in front of it, 'Is this real?' I say. Of course I could never imagine this, and I'm very lucky.”
Buse Tosun Çavuşoğlu also had a great year in 2024. Earlier this year, she won the title of "First European Champion" at the European Wrestling Championships held in Bucharest, Romania. The moment contributed tremendously to furthering her career in international wrestling competitions. At the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, she created a record in Turkish sports by winning bronze medals in 68 kg freestyle wrestling for women. Both victories proved to be a big boost for her career in international wrestling competitions and produced many inspirations for Turkish women with her success at the same instant.
Bilkent is also represented internationally in the science fields by Prof Dr. Bilge Demirköz, one of the most successful Turkish woman scientists, who has made her mark through several significant milestones in 2024. She is an astro-particle physicist who has done extensive research on space radiation and particles that travel close to the speed of light. In 2024, she received the prestigious fellowship program of Eisenhower, in which only 22 researchers worldwide were selected. She was also qualified for the prize given under the For Women in Science program that has been jointly organized by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and L'Oreal for 15 years.
Another impactful Turkish woman of Türkiye was İpek Ilıcak Kayaalp, showing immense success in business. Previously chosen in the list of "40 Under the Age of 40" published by Fortune Türkiye Magazine and Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum in 2018, Kayaalp has been the chair of the board at Rönesans Holding for more than 10 years. As a result of her high-achieving performance and impactful projects, she was selected as a member of UNICEF Board of Directors in 2024.
In the year 2024, women began to enter the stage of political leadership in Turkey a little more than ever before. The ratios have seen some growth compared to the previous years in women's numbers in leadership. There was an increase from four to eleven female mayors elected out of 81 provincial mayors at the provincial level, increasing the value from 4.9% to 13.6%. Hence, politics in Turkey has improved from the point of view of women's representation. The just concluded general elections of May 2023 saw a slight increase in the number of women members of parliament in the Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Türkiye, raising it from 17.3% to 19.91%. At the policy level, for the first time ever, the Twelfth National Development Plan for 2024-2028 includes provisions on temporary special measures. The plan states, "to increase women's participation and representation in education, employment and decision-making mechanisms, 'temporary special measures' like quota and additional support can be briefly defined and implemented."
These women and many more contributed to the power of Turkish women and made Turkish people proud while going through these challenging periods. Türkiye went through indescribable pain and grief as more and more news of femicides were announced in 2024. Women all around the country, from children to adults, were brutally murdered. Even though the women we lost can never be replaced or returned, brave and strong women of Türkiye fought so powerfully to stop violence against women that surely, there is hope for significantly reducing or even stopping femicides. Turkish women’s achievements in science, sports, business fields, and much more honored the memory of the losses and demonstrated how strong and capable women are. Women of Türkiye were encouraged to support each other through these tough times and will continue to do so by getting stronger every day.