Women In Prison

By Eren Keskin

The democratic lawyer Eren Keskin is deputy president of the
Turkish human rights' organization IHD. She lives and works in
Istanbul and represents numerous women prisoners. Here Eren Keskin
gives an overview of the situation of women in Turkish prisons and
describes the problems which they face. She describes this
situation, not only through the eyes of a lawyer but also through
her own experiences of imprisonment, which resulted from her
critical stance towards government policy.

     The Turkish Republic was founded as a nation-state on the
principle that it represented the identity of a single people. A
kind of democracy prevailed, in which undemocratic structures were
allowed to develop.
     Following its "liberation", the Turkish state forgot all its
promises regarding the Kurdish people, even its declaration that
"Turks and Kurds are united in the Turkish state", and began to
govern the Kurdish region by means of special laws. The "Tunceli
laws", the Independent Court of Justice Act, the Settlement Acts
and many others were passed in the years which followed the
foundation of the Republic. At this time, sections of the Kurdish
population were already being driven from their homeland; others
were massacred and Kurdish intellectuals were executed.
     Today the Kurdish region is still governed by special laws.
The state of emergency legislation forms the legal basis for the
undeclared war. Turkey still has special courts: their use dates
back to the introduction of the Independent (Istiklal) Courts and
was followed by the State of Emergency Courts. Today these have
been replaced by the State Security Courts.
     There are currently hundreds of people in prison who were
sentenced by the State Security Courts on the basis of statements
forced out of them by means of torture. Although torture is
expressly forbidden as an interrogation method under Article 135a
of Turkish law, in practice it is a state policy.
     Women are subjected to a greater range of tortures than men,
as, in addition to all the other methods in use, they are prey to
"sexual torture", in the form of sexual assault and rape.
     Above all, in the war zones, as is common in all wars, women
are treated as the spoils of war and, following interrogation and
severe torture, are charged and sent to prison. It is well-known
how bad the conditions of imprisonment are. Both political
prisoners and ordinary prisoners who refuse to collaborate with the
state are subjected to wretched and inhumane conditions.
     I must explain at this juncture that Turkish prisons are run
by two separate administrative bodies. While the Ministry of
Justice is responsible for internal security, external security is
the preserve of the Interior Minister. There are constant
disagreements between the soldiers on the outside and the prison
warders inside the jails and this has an effect on prison regimes.
There is no single, unitary Turkish prison policy and what is
permitted in one institution may well be forbidden in another.
     One of the greatest problems facing women prisoners is that
some prisons - such as Sivas and Usak - refuse to recognize their
representatives. There are also problems with receiving letters and
publications. Publications which oppose the government are
impounded by the prison authorities while decisions on whether they
are permitted or not are reached. In many prisons no meetings are
permitted between male and female prisoners. And there are hygiene
problems: for example, in some prisons the rubbish is not collected
for 15 or 20 days, during which time rats multiply in the cells.
The dirt causes a variety of diseases, which the prisoners then
pass on to one another, because those who are sick are usually
denied medical attention and those who the warders do take to
hospital usually refuse treatment on the grounds that male soldiers
are stationed in the treatment rooms.
     In many prisons problems arise because male warders and
soldiers force their way into women's cells on the pretext of
carrying out general searches of the prison. Women prisoners are
frequently molested during these searches. A letter from PKK
prisoners describes how both political and non-political women
prisoners in Siirt are being sexually harassed by members of the
prison administration.
     For women whose children are present when they are imprisoned,
conditions are even worse. Apart from the absence of any
child-friendly areas in any of the prisons, the children also
experience all the unpleasantness to which their mothers are
subjected. Visiting times pose a further problem: families visiting
their relatives cannot see or hear them properly. Furthermore, on
top of the appalling physical visiting conditions, the relatives
have to deal with the real fear that on leaving the visit, they
will themselves be harassed, arrested for no reason and subjected
to repressive treatment.
     It is impossible to look at the prison problem in Turkey in
isolation from the general situation and, in particular, in
isolation from the war. Without an end to the war and a complete
amnesty, there can be no real solution.
     Women prisoners have taken part in all the prison protests and
in some cases have taken the leading role in them. This was
recently the case in the prisons of Usak and Sivas. In response to
the range of repressive measures they were subjected to, the women
developed a variety of forms of protest and made their voices
publicly heard by going on hunger-strike.
     In 1995 I was imprisoned because of an article I wrote. This
was at exactly the time when 10,000 prisoners were on hunger-strike
demanding peace. I was in a cell with PKK prisoners and I witnessed
the determination with which they participated in the
hunger-strike. Some of them were ill but, with no thought for their
own health, they joined in the hunger-strike, almost as if they
were competing with one another as to who was the most determined.
They felt so strongly about the quest for peace that some women
were even prepared to set themselves on fire. It is unbelievable
how freely they give their lives in the struggle for peace. It was
then that I realised just how crucial the role of women is in
ending the war and finding a solution. The hunger-strike continued
for a long while without the women losing their strength. At
visiting times they wore their best clothes and danced in order to
keep up the morale of their families.
     After I was released in 1996, three prisoners - including one
woman - set themselves on fire in protest against the continuing
war in the region and the inhumane prison conditions. Both men
died, while the woman sustained burns to various part of her body.
One of the 12 hunger-strikers who lost their lives was a woman. It
is shown in practice that female political prisoners have taken
part in all the actions alongside men. In some cases they have led
the protests.
     One final point: as is the case in a number of other areas,
"the democratic media" in Turkey is not doing its duty regarding
prison and custody conditions. Prisons only feature when prisoners
go on hunger-strike or fast to the death. So it is clear that these
allegedly democratic places - as they style themselves - are in
reality far removed from democratic organization.

April 13, 1998

(Source: Kurdistan Report #27 - September-November 1998)