English102-08
Rhetorical Analysis
18 February 2013
It is Always Women who Pay the Price According to a United Nations report published in July two thousand eleven, thirty-nine percent of women in Turkey have suffered physical violence at some time in their lives compared to the twenty percent in America. The article written by Elif Shafak, Rape, Abortion, and the Fight for Women Rights in Turkey, was very effective and persuasive because not only is what she’s saying is true, but it’s also sad and appeals to a more emotional or good willed person. Shafak, an award-winning novelist, is the most widely read women writer in turkey. She holds a Masters degree in Gender and Women’s Studies and PhD in Political Science. Importance rings throughout her article and screams for help in Turkey for these women. Appealing to the feminine and emotional aspects of the human being Shafak makes her strategies significant. Customers of a coffee house in Turkey witnessed a woman carrying a bloody sack into town. She came to a stop and said “Don’t talk behind my back, don’t play with my honor. Here is the head of the man who played with my honor.” She then hurled the sack toward them. This woman is Nevin Yildirim, and the head she threw was the head of her rapist, Nurettin Gider. Gider had been raping her for months in her husband’s absence. Not only did he rape her, he took naked pictures of her, black mailed her while he bragged on what he had done. One night he broke into Yildirim’s home and tried to rape her yet again. But Yildirim grabbed her father’s shot gun and killed him. She shot him ten times, including the groin area, and cut his head off. She then turned herself in and named herself the woman who saved her honor. This is mainly what Elif Shafak’s article is about and she feeds off that emotional aspect to persuade her intended audience. She also uses the common sense that women should not be treated this way.