How the vapid #challengeaccepted trend shone a light on Turkish femicide

But, stuck in the fast-paced bubble of online activism and fake news, Turkish women’s rights campaigners clearly saw a chance for publicity, and took it.

stopfemicides’ post stated that #challengeaccepted began in Turkey as a response to the brutal murder of Pınar Gültekin, a 27-year-old Kurdish student whose body was found in a barrel in July. The post continued to state that there had been nearly 500 recorded femicides in Turkey in 2019 – one of the highest rates in the world. The issue is of particular import now due to Turkey’s current conservative government, led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, moving to abolish certain aspects of the Istanbul Convention, which criminalises stalking, physical and sexual violence against women, and forced marriage among other acts.

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Turkey is often a sticking point in international policy, straddling a liminal space between conservative, majority Muslim, and Middle Eastern nation, and prospective member of the EU. Its geographical on the border between Europe and Asia has made cultural stability a constant balancing act for Turkish leaders, however recently, in the wake of its most recent rejection from EU member state status, Turkey has begun a hard backslide into conservative nationalism. Erdoğan’s brutal suppression of his political and ideological opponents has included repeated human rights violations, particularly against the ethnic Kurdish minority, the LGBT+ community, and women.

Once a shining example of the marriage of Islamic states and democracy, Turkey is now a country where the mayor of its capital, Ankara, can publicly state that women who seek abortions after rape should ‘die instead’ of their unborn children. Erdoğan regularly makes public statements that degrade women, such as claiming that childless women are ‘deficient’. As the rates of violence against women and femicide climb, the #challengeaccepted trend suddenly makes a lot of sense as a call to action to the international community to support Turkish women, and place political pressure on Turkey to improve its human rights portfolio.

Soon, celebrities such as Florence Pugh started editing the original captions of their pictures to include information on Turkish femicide, links to a Change.org petition supporting the Istanbul Convention, and ways to support Turkish women’s rights campaigns and shelters.

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This is the first time in recent memory that, instead of an initially well-meaning social media campaign co-opted by empty symbolic gestures and celebrity self-promotion, the reverse has happened. A meaningless, superficial, and frankly embarrassing trend was streamlined and emboldened with a truly important message.

Since the hashtag was linked to women’s rights in the Turkic region, media attention towards a previously hidden issue has skyrocketed. Activists on the ground and reputable women’s rights organisations in Turkey have gained thousands of followers, and the aforementioned petition to ratify the IC is nearly at its goal of 500,000 signatures. Indeed, the article you’re reading now wouldn’t exist without the ingenuity of some clever campaigners recognising the value of a Kardashian selfie.

As the Turkish actor Meric Aral tweeted last week, ‘Pınar Gültekin’s murderer is among us, at our side, on our bed, at the bus stop, a step behind us… They are not elsewhere, they don’t fall from the sky, they don’t come from space. This is why women’s murders, hate murders, are political.’ And to the extent that the vacuity of Instagram can be strong armed into a political tool, it should be wielded like the weapon that it is.