Negotiating the Risk of Being Murdered in Turkey: Femicide in Everyday Life

Existing literature on femicide frequently focuses on certain patterns of femicide, characteristics of perpetrators and/or victims as well as some other institutional aspects such as policy orientations to reduce incidence and societal changes (like globalization, migration and transformation of family structures and gender order) that would possibly have an influence. However, very little study sheds light on how femicide is perceived in the everyday life. This study brings forward women's perceptions, and their negotiations with rising phenomenon of femicide in Turkey. For this purpose, this study reveals different aspects of femicide in Turkey at two levels. At a macro level, we aim to figure out violence against women, and femicide as an extreme practice of violence through interrelationality with social and economic changes in Turkey. On the other hand, at a micro level, based on interviews with women of risk groups defined through some demographic factors like marital status, belonging to migrant communities and class positioning, this study analyses women’s emotional attachments to femicide and their strategies to challenge risk of being murdered. Accordingly, we aim to reveal how public visibility of femicide shape women’s practices in everyday life and re-constitute social and cultural demarcations between appropriate and inappropriate gender performativities. Moreover, this study would give us an opportunity to understand potentials and/or limitations of women’s agency across increasing phenomenon of femicide and how it is differentiated in terms of class, cultural and regional differences.