Rapist: "What's She Doing Out at That Time of Night!"

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 14 December 2018)



The 'Yargitay' (high court of appeals) has affirmed the right of a woman
to be on the street at any time and that the state must ensure her right to
do so.  This new (!) ruling puts an end to this defense of some harassers
and rapists: "What business did she have being out at that time of night!"

In the past, some courts have given rape suspects sentence reductions
based on the time the incident occurred, allowing that the rapist had been
incited by the woman's presence at a late hour.

The case in question happened on a city bus in Ankara last year at 11
o'clock at night.  A foreign woman boarded the bus and was raped and
robbed by bus driver İbrahim Tuncay.  A lower court in Ankara
convicted Tunay and gave him a jail sentence of 34 years, 8 months.
Both Tuncay and the Stop Violence Against Women's Platform
Association appealed the sentence, saying it was too much and too
little, respectively.

Tuncay claimed in court that his actions were permissible because
"I'm a Turk and a Moslem and she's a foreigner!".  Another of
Tuncay's defenses included "Having sex with a menstruating woman
is against my beliefs!"  All his pretexts for obtaining a sentence
reduction were rejected by the court.  The women's association was
deemed to have no standing in the case. It's lawyer Hüsniye Şimşek
told Hürriyet that Tuncay should have been tried for attempted
murder, as well.


                  "If only I'd been on the day shift..."