‘There’s no way my daughter would have jumped’: why are so many Turkish women falling to their deaths?
More news about the topic
Hundreds of women are recorded in Turkish government data every year as having taken their lives by “throwing themselves from a high place”. The numbers have grown exponentially: one in every four female suicides in Turkey is now attributed to this cause, compared with one in five 10 years ago. State records for 2024 state more than 250 women died this way.
Their grieving families, along with campaigners against gender-based violence, say these figures conceal cases where women did not jump but were pushed. Many say they have struggled for years to get justice and claim officials are ignoring or obscuring femicides – murders of women targeted because of their gender.
Four hundred twenty women were murdered in Turkey and 508 others died under suspicious circumstances in 2025, according to an annual report released on Friday by the Socio-Political Field Research Center (SAMER).
Based on media reports, the study documented 662 cases of physical violence against women, 1,089 cases of forced sex work, 130 incidents of harassment, 25 rapes and 96 cases involving threats or verbal abuse. along with 170 cases of child sexual abuse.
www.praeventionstag.de