The Story of a harassment in Turkey, which changed my life

This is not a story of physical abuse thank God. This is not one of those horrible stories women read about other women. Men don't usually read those. In a nutshell this is a story of a date taking a sending a picture of me inside my house sitting on a sofa taken from a nearby rooftop. Nothing more. It’s a few minute's action. And sounds like not big of a deal. This is what I first thought. Until I found out that this is a criminal case with 3 prison years in Turkey and that all men know about it. This is connected to the hot civil issue in Turkey of men violence and death towards women. Just as Ukrainian believed corruption is the biggest civil issue, violence towards women is the one in Turkey.

I talked to 2 lawyers about this case. And my abuser is lucky that this was a too hard endeavor to pull of emotionally. So he is not in prison because I was too wracked after his abuse to file against him. Nice. Patriarchy won.

I am not accustomed to wish bad to others. But I did in this case. I wanted him to feel at least as bad as I felt. I suffered undeservingly. I have not acted upon this secret wish. My only hope is fate in carma.

That situation changed my life dramatically. I left apartment the next morning after it happened and never visited in without male friends. I moved out of apartment right away. Accidentally my brother came to town and we stayed together in a hotel. I changed districts. I lived at my boyfrıends home for 5 months since then, which was never a plan. I moved for a while to my home country and town to come back to normal. My state there got worse in the contrary and I came back. I lost a dear friend. I had depression and anxiety, which were diagnosed only half a year later. I had issues in my relationships. My work got affected for at least a few months. I considered leaving the country for good. I lost a lot of money as a result of his action.

I have shivers and fear every time I pass places where I met that abuser. My friends sent out information about this abuser across his industry, so I hope Gorkem Taş has less work since then as a cameraman.