'We Don't Want To Die': Women In Turkey Decry Rise In Violence And Killings
"Domestic violence never happens because there's a problem with the woman. The men are killing. They are the problem," says a rights activist in Istanbul.
Emine Dirican, a beautician from Istanbul, tried to be a good wife. But her husband hated that she worked, that she socialized, even that she wanted to leave the house sometimes without him.
She tried to reason with him. He lashed out.
"One time, he tied me — my hands, my legs from the back, like you do to animals," recalls Dirican, shuddering. "He beat me with a belt and said, 'You're going to listen to me, you're going to obey whatever I say to you.' "
She left him and moved in with her parents. In January, he showed up, full of remorse and insisting he had changed. She let him in.
In her mother's kitchen, he grabbed her by the hair, threw her to the floor and pulled out a gun.
"He shot me," she says. "Then he went
