After almost two decades in power, R. T. Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have established authoritarian and Islamist governance in Turkey, which has adversely affected gender equality and women’s rights. So much so, that in 2009 the European Court of Human Rights acknowledged that there is a climate conducive to domestic violence in Turkey (Opuz v. Turkey). Despite Erdoğan withdrawing Turkey unconstitutionally from the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), the government cannot withdraw from the state’s duty to protect its citizens from the criminal acts of private individuals. By using international and regional organisations’ approaches to positive obligations and due diligence as a measure, the article addresses whether Turkey is fulfilling its duty of protecting women from the violent conduct of others. It is concluded that the government is failing in its positive obligations and instead, is reinforcing the climate through its discourse and practices that strengthen a national tolerance of violence against women and the national authorities’ reluctance to address it, thus allowing for impunity of its perpetrators.

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Since the late 2000s, Turkey has experienced de-Europeanisation, de-democratisation, and Islamist and authoritarian transformation that has also reinforced patriarchal understanding of gender relations and regressive gender norms. This study focuses on women’s freedom from religion and their liberty to decide whether to wear an Islamic veil in such a gendered socio-political climate. The online platform Yalnız Yürümeyeceksin [you will not walk alone] was born in 2018, and it anonymously publishes women’s life experiences around veiling. By examining 592 letters published between 2018 and 2020, this original study ascertains that women’s rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) have been disregarded against the backdrop of oppressed women’s lived histories. In doing so, the study reveals how various parties’ decisions around veiling shape women’s lives and how women’s rights and freedoms are violated vis-à-vis these decisions.

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