Help Turkish Academics (Urgent)

From Faik Kurtulmus:

 

1,128 ‘Academics for Peace’ originally signed the statement “We will not be a party to this crime”, calling on the Turkish government to cease hostilities against its own citizens. Since the publication of this statement, these academics have been subject to a sustained campaign of abuse and violence from both the Turkish state and its supporters.

In recent speeches, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly denounced these academics. Subsequently, YÖK, the government agency overseeing Higher Education, and prosecutors have begun proceedings to charge all 1,128 of the original signatories with “propagandising for a terrorist organization” and “overtly insulting the Turkish nation, the State of the Republic of Turkey, Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the Government of Republic of Turkey and the judicial organs of the state”.

This has resulted in several academics being taken into custody under the provisions of anti-terrorism legislation, manuscripts and pcs seized and offices ransacked, sealed and marked with paint to further victimize those who have expressed concern at the Turkish government’s gratuitous use of violence in the Southeast of the country. If convicted of these charges they could face 1-5 years imprisonment. The legitimacy of arrests has already been questioned by prominent legal experts and described as “extra-legal” decisions. Signatories have also been publicly exposed in the press and social media by government supporters and nationalists, leading to fears of reprisals from fascists that have declared they will ‘spill the blood’ of the signatories. Many of the signatories also face disciplinary proceedings and possible sackings from their institutions.”

You can support these academics under threat by signing the letter of support at https://solidaritytoturkishacademics.wordpress.com/about/

Martha Nussbaum on sexual assault

Nussbaum draws on her own experiences to discuss sexual assault by powerful men.  Her main argument has a deeply depressing conclusion, consisting of advice to women:

Law cannot fix this problem. Famous men standardly get away with sexual harms, and for the most part will continue to do so. They know they are above the law, and they are therefore undeterrable. What can society do? Don’t give actors and athletes such glamor and reputational power. But that won’t happen in the real world. What can women do? Don’t be fooled by glamor. Do not date such men, unless you know them very, very well. Do not go to their homes. Never be alone in a room with them. And if you ignore my sage advice and encounter trouble, move on. Do not let your life get hijacked by an almost certainly futile effort at justice. Focus on your own welfare, and in this case that means: forget the law.

She also, in passing, raises an important issue about consent that (as she notes) is very much under-addressed.

Unlike the Cosby women, I certainly intended to consent to intercourse. What I did not consent to was the gruesome, violent, and painful assault that he substituted for intercourse. I remember screaming for help, to no avail, and I remember him saying, “It’s all part of sex.”

I’m inviting discussion of these issues.  But I’m also urging people to keep our Be Nice rules even more firmly in mind than usual.  These are difficult issues, and ones on which discussions quickly turn nasty.  And, somehow, appallingly, a survivor’s testimony seems especially likely to bring out the worst online.