Hande kader.

[950483]

Hande Kader's murder has been reported as a transphobic, or possibly homophobic crime. To me it looks a lot like the common or garden variety of violence against women. Being a sex worker was also a contributing factor, as that is what placed her in that dangerous, and fatal situation.

What I'm saying is this: I think being a woman and being a sex worker were greater contributing factors than being trans.

 

[TexanStar]

I haven't heard any announcement of a suspect or arrest in the case, so it'd be hard without details to say what the motive was.

It's certainly possible though.

 

[MickeyLee]

Hande Kader was an outspoken LGBTQ right worker/activist.
imaging that her trans status didn't play a huge role in her death is sweeping trans issues under the rug
i think Turkey has almost twice the level of violence against trans people than the rest of Europe has
she was killed because she was a transwoman, and her being a sex worker gave them the opportunity to grab her

 

[elvid]

Being a sex worker was also a contributing factor.

Yes, this is true. I think maybe the point, though, is that many trans women are pushed into sex work because they face discrimination in wider society...and they find there is a lot of demand for pre-op male to female trans women in the sex industry. So, as a society, we have a massively disproportionate percentage of trans women ending up in sex work which obviously places them in a lot of danger.

 

[TexanStar]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O'Hair

That's not an anomaly. People get killed for all sorts of reasons. Madalyn Murray O'hair was killed and dismembered, but it wasn't because she was an atheist. It's because she posted a rant about an ex-felon who was working for them and suspected of burglarizing them and he reacted by kidnapping her and her family, stealing her money, and murdering her. It was nothing to do with her religious views.

I'm not arguing that Hande Kader wasn't killed because she was trans. I'm not arguing that she wasn't killed because she was a woman. I'm just arguing that there's almost no details of her death publicly released and it just seems like speculation at this point to pin her death on one cause or another.

With all of that said, violence against women and violence against trans individuals and violence against sex workers are all pervasive and abhorrent and need improvement both here stateside, and abroad in places like Turkey, regardless of what the cause for her murder turns out to be.

 

[Ruth-less]

trans women ARE women.

 

[950483]

trans women ARE women.

Previously my opinion on that has been pretty much the same as Germaine Greer's. I think the main reason why I started this thread is that I might be reconsidering my stance on that.

I don't know if Hande Kader would have preferred to have been referred to as a transwoman or a woman.

 

[950483]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O'Hair

That's not an anomaly. People get killed for all sorts of reasons. Madalyn Murray O'hair was killed and dismembered, but it wasn't because she was an atheist. It's because she posted a rant about an ex-felon who was working for them and suspected of burglarizing them and he reacted by kidnapping her and her family, stealing her money, and murdering her. It was nothing to do with her religious views.

I'm not arguing that Hande Kader wasn't killed because she was trans. I'm not arguing that she wasn't killed because she was a woman. I'm just arguing that there's almost no details of her death publicly released and it just seems like speculation at this point to pin her death on one cause or another.

With all of that said, violence against women and violence against trans individuals and violence against sex workers are all pervasive and abhorrent and need improvement both here stateside, and abroad in places like Turkey, regardless of what the cause for her murder turns out to be.

She was raped, mutilated, and burned to death. Only the people there at the time will ever know what happened. I'm not even sure that finding the perpetrator is going to be much of a priority because of everything else that is going on in Turkey at the moment.

 

[TexanStar]

http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/lgbt-tortured-killed-impunity-turkey

"Muhammed Wisam Sankari, a gay Syrian refugee, was stabbed multiple times and beheaded in Istanbul last month. His body was mutilated beyond recognition. He had arrived in Istanbul from Syria a year ago.

Sankari left his house in Istanbul on July 23. He was found dead two days later. He had been threatened, kidnapped and raped during his brief life in Istanbul. His murderers have not been caught.

Sankari’s housemates, Rayan, Diya and Gorkem, told the news outletKaosGL.org about the repeated threats Sankari was getting and his murder.

“We were staying in a different house before and we had to leave that house just because we are gay,” Rayan said. “About five months ago, a group kidnapped Wisam [Sankari] in Fatih. They took him to a forest, beat him and raped him. They were going to kill him but Wisam saved himself by jumping onto the road. We complained at the police headquarters but they did nothing.”

Rayan added that they had difficulty even walking on the streets of Aksaray where they lived and where crowded male groups wielding knives had threatened them several times, saying they wanted to rape them.

“On Sunday, the police called us,” Gorkem said. “We went to Yenikapi with Rayan. They had cut Wisam violently. So violent that two knives had broken inside him. They had beheaded him. His upper body was beyond recognition; his internal organs were out. We could only identify our friend from his pants.”


Apparently there's a ton of severe violence against the LGBT community going on there right now. This poor man was attacked multiple times (and they succeeded on killing him on this last attempt). Law enforcement there isn't doing anything/enough about it.

I can't really imagine that Turkey's going to move any further on its path to join the EU (they look to be moving backwards).

 

[950483]

http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/lgbt-tortured-killed-impunity-turkey

"Muhammed Wisam Sankari, a gay Syrian refugee, was stabbed multiple times and beheaded in Istanbul last month. His body was mutilated beyond recognition. He had arrived in Istanbul from Syria a year ago.

Sankari left his house in Istanbul on July 23. He was found dead two days later. He had been threatened, kidnapped and raped during his brief life in Istanbul. His murderers have not been caught.

Sankari’s housemates, Rayan, Diya and Gorkem, told the news outletKaosGL.org about the repeated threats Sankari was getting and his murder.

“We were staying in a different house before and we had to leave that house just because we are gay,” Rayan said. “About five months ago, a group kidnapped Wisam [Sankari] in Fatih. They took him to a forest, beat him and raped him. They were going to kill him but Wisam saved himself by jumping onto the road. We complained at the police headquarters but they did nothing.”

Rayan added that they had difficulty even walking on the streets of Aksaray where they lived and where crowded male groups wielding knives had threatened them several times, saying they wanted to rape them.

“On Sunday, the police called us,” Gorkem said. “We went to Yenikapi with Rayan. They had cut Wisam violently. So violent that two knives had broken inside him. They had beheaded him. His upper body was beyond recognition; his internal organs were out. We could only identify our friend from his pants.”


Apparently there's a ton of severe violence against the LGBT community going on there right now. This poor man was attacked multiple times (and they succeeded on killing him on this last attempt). Law enforcement there isn't doing anything/enough about it.

I can't really imagine that Turkey's going to move any further on its path to join the EU (they look to be moving backwards).

Yes, but uber-straight homophobic men usually say that the thing they find most upsetting and terrifying about gay men is that they are effeminate in some way.

 

[At.your.cervix]

At least in the US, it seems that everyone is being called a "hero." However, for me, to be a hero is to do something which you know is right despite the knowledge that doing so will almost certainly cause one injury or death. Hande Kader's horrible demise was almost a given, being not only a sex worker, but a transgendered one who was also an outspoken advocate for others like her--in a country split by a cultural transformation between modernity and traditional Islam. To do that, knowing that her fate was all but assured, to me is the definition of being a "hero." Beyond that, whether her killers were motivated by homophobia, moral self righteousness and indignation, or cultural angst, is just a mere triviality--the despicable act, for any of those reasons, is but the saddest commentary on the moral evolution of our species.