On the Occasion of the Mother's Day
Today we are gathered here to be the voice of voiceless political prisoners of mothers in
Turkey alongside with their babies. The state of emergency and decree laws after the
failed coup attempt of July 2016 devastated the lives of tens of thousands families and
indeed women in Turkey. In recent years, Turkey has experienced a sharp declining
trend in almost all democratic indicators, including civil, political, economic and social
rights; freedom of expression and media. Violation of the rights of women have been
among these but the situation deteriorated substantially in the aftermath of the
attempted coup. There is now a pattern of grave and systematic abuses against women
and the number of women being detained, arrested unlawfully have reached 17,000.
Women who raise their voice as a critic are facing severe economic hardship, exclusion
and violence, humiliating and degrading treatment in places where they are deprived of
their liberty, including in health- care facilities, especially during pregnancy, childbirth
and the postpartum period. Tens of thousands of women, including housewives,
journalists, teachers, academics, health care professionals, business women, basically
women from all different backgrounds and professions have been detained in the
aftermath of the attempted coup.
Cases of discrimination and alleged ill-treatment range from arrest of pregnant women,
women in labor taken to custody, denial of medical services and detention of women
during the postpartum period. There are mothers being detained arbitrarily with their
babies everyday in Turkey.
Today, we are here on the occasion of the Mothers Day to call upon the authorities to
apply the rule of law and release the mothers following the execution of penalties and
security measures in the Turkish constitution and postpone the execution of penalties
for pregnant women or women with babies.