JINHA

ANKARA - A bill calling for stronger sentencing in cases of killings of women has reached Turkey's Parliament. Over one million signatories have supported the bill.

After 20-year-old student Özgecan Aslan was raped and killed by the driver of the minibus she was riding and his two friends in February, women started a petition for killers of women to receive the maximum possible sentence for their crime. Judges frequently order sentence reductions for killers of women in Turkey, a factor that many say has encouraged the skyrocketing rate of femicides.

Women started a petition for the "Özgecan Law," named after the slain student. The law would specify the maximum sentence (life in prison, with penal servitude) for perpetrators of such crimes. The proposed law also calls for the removal of the legal concept of "consent" in the case of forced marriages of juveniles and the removal of sentence reductions for "provocation" (often used to excuse perpetrators of anti-woman violence based on the victim's clothes or behavior).

More than one million people have signed the petition for the Özgecan Law. Now, CHP representative Aylin Nazlıaka has introduced the draft of the Özgecan Law to Turkey's Parliament for consideration.

(gc/cm)