‘History’s on our side’: Turkish women fighting femicide

As Turkey quits the Istanbul convention, Gulsum Kav's group We Will Stop Femicide is helping keep women alive amid a rise in gender-based violence

History is on our side," says Gulsum Kav. She leans in and speaks intensely. She has a lot to say: Kav helped create Turkey's We Will Stop Femicide (WWSF) group, and has become one of the country's leading feminist activists even as the political environment has grown more hostile.

Amid protests, Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul convention, the landmark international treaty to prevent violence against women and promote equality, on Thursday. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, has long attacked women's rights and gender equality, suggesting that feminists reject the concept of motherhood", speaking out against abortion and even caesarean sections, and claiming that gender equality is against nature".