Chile’s embassy in Türkiye, UN office mark Int’l Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women

By Busra Nur Cakmak

ANKARA (AA) – Chile’s embassy in Türkiye and the UN Women Türkiye office marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Wednesday.

In a roundtable panel titled Human Rights and Violence Against Women: A Shared Vision, Chile’s ambassador Rodrigo Arcos, lawmaker Lorena Fries and Duygu Arığ, Programme Specialist at UN Women Türkiye, discussed issues women face and how to raise awareness ahead of the UN-designated day on Nov. 25.

Fries said that violence against women is often discussed within marriage, but in the past few decades in Latin America, studies show that it starts much earlier with controlling behavior of the partner and then escalates until it turns to violence.

She stressed the importance of education of young women and girls on the issues.

Arığ for her part said that prevention should start at an early age by educating young people about gender equality.

“I have been part of other research during my tenure with UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), where we have worked with middle school students and we try to understand their perceptions in terms of violence against women,” she said.

“And we have seen that the gender roles are so concrete that even at that age, you cannot break it.”

“So whatever we do, we should start off very early,” she added.