What the papers say

“WE ARE shame-faced again on International Women’s Day” declared Havadis columnist Mehmet Moreket.

Writing on Thursday, he described March 8 as “an awareness day; a day established to drum into heads women’s rights to economic, social, political — every kind of — equality and freedom”.

“How long have we been marking it?” he asked, answering himself; 108 years globally, 97 in Turkey, and in the TRNC “I guess” since the administration was established.

“We celebrate and celebrate and what happens? A small minority organise symposiums, demonstrations and issue statements. And most of us mark the day as if it was a birthday celebration: tea parties, adverts with flowers — far removed from the awareness that the whole thing is supposed to be about.”

However Mr Moreket described as “frightening” statistics in the TRNC, “where the women enjoy every kind of right”.

“Only the other day it was disclosed that over the last seven years 10 women had become murder victims,” he wrote.

“All of them were killed, not by a strange pervert . . . but by someone close to them.

“Another investigation last year revealed that there had been 131 rapes over the last 10 years. There has been a frightening increase in such cases over the years, from nine cases in 2006, by 2016 it had gone up to 29.”

The writer claimed the rest of the world was “no better”, citing the cases of Sweden — “the country with the highest number of rapes and sexual assaults in Europe” — and France, where he said 75,000 women were raped every year.

Mr Moreket said that even if different cultures were present in the TRNC, it was “our duty to protect” women from violence and to ensure children were brought up “decently”.

“For as long as we pretend not to see, the figures will rise even further,” he said, adding that North Cyprus had “become a place where women are marketed as objects” — harshly criticised every year in European and US human rights reports — and “the way we look at women has to change”.

“The TRNC’s female workforce, in both private and public sectors, is substantial. Even though the number of women to have risen to adminstrative positions is considerable, they have only just made their presence felt in politics,” he concluded.

“During the last 56 years we have only had 16 women deputies. And for the first time ever, nine women managed to enter Parliament at [January’s] election, when female quotas undoubtedly played a role.

“And now we have political parties in power who champion women’s rights. Maybe radical steps will [be made] and we will not mark Women’s Day shamefacedly in future.”