Women all over Turkey and the world gathered for meetings, discussions and conferences on March 8. Women killings, men’s violence, discriminations in terms of laws and implementations, homophobia and ignoring the women labor were the popular items on the agenda of this year’s International Women’s Day.
Women all over Turkey and the world gathered for meetings, discussions and conferences on March 8. Women killings, men’s violence, discriminations in terms of laws and implementations, homophobia and ignoring the women labor were the popular items on the agenda of this year’s International Women’s Day.
The women from Istanbul Feminist Kolektif gathered outside the Kadıköy Courthouse early in the morning holding placards with the photos and names of the women who were murdered by men that are their husbands, relatives etc. A press release contained those statements: “We are not asking for favors, promises, laws on paper but we would like to see some will and budget to implement those laws, actual steps to be taken and see the results immediately. We do not want to be killed leaving our abortive indictments behind us. We do no want laws that are probably going to remain only on paper but we want immediate measures to be taken. We are addressing the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the government and the judicial authority; women are being killed by the men who are their relatives every day, why are you still waiting to stop those murders?”.
Hundreds of women met at the Taksim tram station in the evening hours. The women chanted these slogans: “We are demonstrating against the women killings”, “The man shoots, the state guards”, “Adopt your body, identity, labor”, “We are not honour, not property, not hymen, we are feminists,” “Don’t do housework, let the world stop”, “The world would move away from its place, if the women were free”.
To put it in a nutshell, the press release contained following statements:
“We demonstate against the MEN’S VIOLENCE, we revolt against the WOMEN KILLINGS…”
“We cannot tolerate even one more murder of another woman.”
“We revolt against wife battering, against our fathers and big brothers who are so keen to guard our honour. We revolt against our bodies being handed over to men and the patriarchal state instead of us. We revolt against the state-led violence, torture; sexual harassment by the village guards, soldiers and the cops…”
“We revolt against our labour at home to be confiscated by men… Against our labor to be underestimated though we do housework, raise children, work as gratis family workers. We revolt against being exploited in the capitalist market, being considered as a secondary and cheap workforce, against the sexist division of labour. We revolt against the bosses. We revolt against the patriarchal unions which do not include women in their administrative affairs and ignore the attack on women by the capitalism intertwined with patriarchy.”
“We revolt against not being able to live out our sexuality, the patriarchy’s imposing heterosexism upon us. We revolt against excluding and ignoring the lesbian women, the violence against the transvestite and transsexual women, the hate-crime murders.”
“We revolt against women’s labor, their bodies ana their identities being controlled by men, we revolt against the PATRIARCHAL ORDER…”
LONG LIVE FEMINIST REVOLT
BİJİ SERHİLDANA FEMİNİST
