The Violence Against Women Legal Clinic, an initiative of the Faculty of Law, works to help prevent violence against women by raising awareness of the issue. Since the 2020 spring semester, volunteer law students have been sharing their theoretical knowledge with various groups on campus in order to inform them about the types of violence that exist in society and the plight of the real-life victims of such violence that they encounter through the Clinic. In addition, the Clinic helps victims connect with other institutions and organizations that are active in addressing this issue. 
The Clinic is currently working on the dating abuse (or “dating violence”) issue, as it is the most common, although often hidden, form of violence affecting university students. Dating violence is a pattern of aggressive and controlling behavior that one partner uses against another to gain or maintain power and control in the relationship. Forms of abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, social or digital. As victims and abusers may come from all social and economic backgrounds, it is crucial to be aware of the issue in order to recognize one’s own exposure to this type of violence.
In this context, volunteer students gave a presentation titled “Rules of Dating at Bilkent University” to freshmen as part of the GE100 Orientation Program in both 2020 and 2021. In this way, students learned more about the violence that they might observe in their daily lives, relationships or immediate environment, or that they might experience themselves without even realizing it.
The next step for the Clinic is to reach a wider audience through media tools such as posters, brochures and news releases. The posters that have already been placed in various locations around the campus offer more information about dating abuse. Please do not hesitate to contact the Clinic (email: hukuk@bilkent.edu.tr) or other agencies involved in combatting this problem regarding the issue.
Doğa Seylan (LAW/IV), member of the Clinic Team