ISTANBUL - Women protesting against the rape Paula Maier was subjected to at a Removal Center called for an effective investigation, saying: “End sexual harassment and rape in detention. The patriarchal state will be held accountable.”

 

Women Are Stronger Together issued a statement in support of German activist Paula Maier, who came to Turkey to strengthen international solidarity with North and East Syria and publicly exposed the rape she was subjected to at a Removal Center after being detained. During the statement in Taksim’s Tünel district, women held a banner reading, “End sexual torture against women in Removal Centers and detention.” They also chanted “Jin, jiyan, azadî.” Simay Ada Kart read the press statement on behalf of Women Are Stronger Together.

 

Simay Ada Kart recalled that German activist Paula Maier, a member of the People’s Caravan, had publicly exposed being raped and tortured by a male staff member at a Removal Center in Turkey. She said that Removal Centers had become sites of hostility toward migrants and women, racism and torture since they were established, and that migrants were subjected to various forms of pressure to force them out of the country. Emphasizing that patriarchal state violence and sexual torture were not isolated incidents, Simay Ada Kart cited the sexual violence experienced by Anna, who set out with the Sumud Flotilla to show solidarity with the Palestinian people, and Alma, another member of the People’s Caravan, while they were in detention. Simay Ada Kart said:  “Strip searches, sexual harassment and sexual violence have effectively become routine practices in prisons, police stations and Removal Centers, aimed at breaking the will of women who resist and struggle and punishing them.” 

 

‘WILL THERE BE AN EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION?’

 

Simay Ada Kart said the pressure and violence women face, from Vatan Police Department to Bakırköy Women’s Prison and from Removal Centers to police stations, is intended to force women to abandon their struggle. She stressed that strip searches are not a “procedure” but a form of torture in their own right. Recalling Paula Maier’s words, “It is our collective responsibility to turn these experiences into a story of resistance,” Simay Ada Kart said internationalist solidarity among women would continue to grow. At the end of the statement, Simay Ada Kart posed the following questions to the authorities and the government: “Will the torture centers operating under the name of Removal Centers be shut down? Will those responsible for the harassment and rape of women in prisons and police stations over the years, as well as public officials who have turned a blind eye to these abuses, be held accountable? Will effective investigations be conducted into sexual violence committed in detention and prisons?”

 

The protests ended with chants.