Don't Touch the BDP's Women Deputies

After Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Sebahat Tuncel got sentenced to 8 years and 9 months in prison for being a "member of an illegal organization", Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said "Are they women?", implying the BDP's women deputies. Women made a sit-down protest in Galatasaray, İstanbul against Arınç's statement. The protest was hold after the Saturday Mothers meeting.

In the press statement it was claimed that Prime Minister Erdoğan and the AKP's deputies conflate their insults to Kurdish politicians with sexism and target the BDP's women deputies.

It was stated that while the plan to lift the immunities of the BDP's deputies was on the agenda, the women deputies were subjected to sexist hostility; it was also underlined that the BDP's women deputies were exposed to physical violence. Ayla Akat Aka was wounded in leg after the police's open fire. Pervin Buldan was pounded by a gas bomb and wounded in leg. Emine Ayna was pointed as a target and dragged through streets by the police. Sebahat Tuncel was dragged by the police in Taksim Square and hospitalized because of the pepper gas. Sevahir Bayındır's haunch bone was broken after she was hit by a high-pressure water.

The misogynist and nationalist attitude against the BDP's women deputies render the law and the deputy immunity dysfunctional. The protesters chanted "Long Live Women's Solidarity", "The AKP wants war, The Women Wants Peace", "Don't Touch My Deputy, Respect The Elected".

It was stated that the legislative immunities of the BDP parliamentarians should be respected not lifted, that there should be no violation of the abstract eqaulity said to exist among all parliamentarians.

Organizers of the demonstration: Women Initiative for Peace, Rainbow Women Association, Women Labour Collective, Progressive Women's Solidarity Association, İmece Women Union, Socialist Feminist Collective, New Democrat Woman, women from DİSK, EHP, Halkevci, İHD and ÖDP, and finally, HDK İstanbul Women Assembly (TAA/HK).