After the earthquakes, it’s women and girls in Turkey feeling the aftershocks | Elif Shafak

Stories of abuse are emerging from the rubble. Meanwhile, in a misogynistic society, women's basic needs are going unmet

In Turkey's southern province of Hatay, one of the most ravaged cities in the recent earthquakes, 25-year-old Alev Altun, the mother of two young children, became homeless in one night, like thousands of others. Having nowhere to go, she agreed to take refuge in the house of her ex-husband, on his invitation, assuming it would be safer to stay with the father of her children than alone in a tent or in a building at risk of collapse.

While she was sleeping, her ex-husband allegedly poured scalding water all over her, shouting she should be grateful that he had not killed her. She remains in intensive care at a local hospital, with severe burns to her head, face and body. Hers is one of the many harrowing stories of women and girls in crisis zones.