Women’s Refuges as a Lifebuoy for Women Exposed to Domestic Violence in Turkey

From past until today, women have been exposed to many different types of poverty, deprivation, desperation and violence. The most dramatic one from all those destructive effects are the domestic violence and abuse of women. The domestic violence is a fact, which is mostly ignored and overpassed in many societies. When the lower chances of economic survival for women are also taken into account within this framework, the feeling of frustration worsens the dilemma between poverty and domestic violence for them. The solution search for this problem began in the last half of the twentieth century. Since then, the domestic violence is brought to the attention of mankind, regarded as violation of human rights and relevant legal and organizational arrangements have been made. One of these organizational arrangements is Women’s Refuges. Today, these Women’s Refuges have become an important part of the struggle strategies against domestic violence and women’s poverty. The idea of Women’s Refuge arose primarily in Europe, and then spread all over the world beginning from 1970s. In Turkey, Women’s Refuges started to serve in the 1990s. This study focuses on the existence of Women’s Refuges in Turkey as a struggle strategy against domestic violence and poverty. The concept of violence against women and the evolution of Women’s Refuges will be discussed from the beginning to the present. In this respect, the historical development process, the legal basis, organizational developments, implementations and the problems of Women’s Refuges in Turkey will be analyzed.