Woman celebrates her divorce by paragliding
BURSA - Demirören News Agency
A woman has marked her divorce by paragliding to a party in the Bursa province where her friends met her to celebrate the end of her marriage.
Meryem Karaş, a 49-year-old woman who had married for the second time six years ago, kept her promise to celebrate the completion of her divorce proceedings by giving a party with her friends on Oct. 13.
“I had promised to fly when I get divorced,” she said, after landing on the party scene in the Zümrütevler neighborhood in the district of Yıldırım by paragliding from the foothills of Mount Uludağ. She had announced her suit for divorce with a flourish of trumpets a year ago.
During the paragliding ride, Karaş unfurled a banner reading: “Stop violence against women and femicides. Stop abuse and murder of children. Stop every kind of violence.”
“My case is over, and I kept my promise. As a woman exposed to violence, ‘Stop every kind of violence,’ I say,” she said upon landing.
Her relatives and friends applauded her with a banner reading: “You will never walk alone.”
The celebration went on with the distribution of lokma, a donut-like Turkish sweet shared on the observance of a celebratory event.
Over 345 women killed in 2019
Some 53 women were killed across Turkey in September, making it the deadliest month of this year so far for women, according to a report by Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu (We Will Stop Femicides Platform).
The number of women killed since the beginning of this year reached 347, said the activist platform. In 2018, the number of women killed was 440, according to the same group.
Turkey’s new judicial reform package, prepared as part of the Judicial Reform Strategy Document unveiled on May 30, is expected to include measures to prevent violence against women and sexual abuse.
“We’re seeing up forensic interview rooms and child monitoring centers where women or children who have been subjected to sexual assault or violence will be able to testify without meeting with the perpetrator,” Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül told reporters on Oct. 4.
Women’s rights activists have been pushing for implementation of the measures in the Istanbul Convention, formally known as The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
Most recently, the murder of a Turkish woman, Emine Bulut, by her ex-husband in front of her daughter sparked outrage on Aug. 23 after a video of the attack went viral online.
