A mother of two who said she was forced to marry her husband after he raped her and who was then repeatedly beaten and abused by him over the years has written to her daughters from prison where she is being kept since shooting him while defending herself during another attack.

Melek Ipek, 31, was arrested immediately after the shooting and was unable to comfort her two terrified daughters aged seven and nine who also witnessed what had happened.

Her arrest has put her at the forefront of protests after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention – also known as The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence – by a presidential decree published in the official government gazette on 20th March.

Turkey signed the Council of Europe’s convention 10 years ago when it was drawn up in the Turkish city of Istanbul, but it has now decided to abandon it amid growing anger at a lack of protection for women from domestic violence and women’s rights in general in the country.

The case of Melek Ipek, who was allegedly repeatedly beaten during the 12-year marriage with her husband Ramazan Ipek, 36, is seen by many as a symbol of the abuse that women receive in a legal system that always seems to favour the men.

She was arrested after he allegedly beat her, assaulted her and tied her naked to a chair, saying he was going to kill her and their two daughters when he returned from getting some food.

She managed to reach a gun in the hallway when he went out, by tipping the chair over, and when he came back and attacked her despite being warned to stay away, she told police that the gun allegedly went off when he tried to wrestle it from her hands and he was shot dead.

Campaigners argue that in a country where the number of women who have lost their lives due to violence against women in 2021 alone is 79, her actions were the only thing that stopped her and her two daughters aged seven and nine also being added to the sad total.

In statements made to the judge, via her lawyer, she claims that she had been forced to marry him when she had been a student hoping to become a maths teacher after he raped her in order to force her to marry him to prevent bringing shame on her family.

She told a recent hearing, in which she is facing life in jail: “My husband would beat me for no reason at all. He would wake up in the morning, frustrated and angry because of a dream he had and beat me just because of it.”

She added, “He was not only violent to me but also to our children as well. He would especially beat my older daughter. My daughter had to learn not to cry when she was beaten because when she cried, he would beat her more.”

Despite the trauma of the ordeal in which their mother was beaten and he was shot, she has now been separated from them and jailed and has written to them from the Dosemealti L Type Penitentiary Institution.

Her first contact has been after she was allowed to send them a letter in which she drew pictures of a bird bringing hearts, roses and letters to her daughters, identified only as C. D. I. and I. N. I.

In one of her drawings, Melek wrote, “Put your hands on your hearts every time you think of me. Because I’m always there. My dear daughters”.

She also sent a drawing of an owl and a house to colour and asked them to return it to her after colouring them.

She added: “After I get out of here, let’s get a parrot, and together we teach it to speak. And build a house where rabbits eat grass in its garden.”

Melek had previously written a letter to her lawyer for use in her defence, and in her letter, she said that she met Ramazan through a friend in high school and that he raped her in the first meeting.

A petition that had been organised on Change.org (https://bit.ly/2LBWMV5) has attracted another 25,000 in addition to the 50,000 already had in the wake of the Turkish move and the hashtag #MelekİpekSerbestBırakılsın calling for her to be released so she can care for her traumatised daughters has also been launched.

The prosecution want her jailed for life.