Women Gather on İstiklal Avenue: 'Our Hope is in One Another'

Photo: Yağmur Karagöz / bianet

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Women gathered last night (November 25) on Tünel Square in Taksim, İstanbul to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

While a large police force was deployed in the area, women began to come to the square at around 6 p.m., gathering behind a banner that read, "We can't tolerate losing one more person."

The police blocked all entrances to İstiklal Avenue for both vehicles and pedestrians.

Beyoğlu District Governor initially announced that it banned the march but then decided to allow it on a 140-meter long area on the avenue, from the Tünel Square to the İstanbul Bar Association.

In the last few years, the government has rarely allowed a political demonstration on İstiklal Avenue, which had been the most significant place for political events for decades.

The women began to walk at 7 p.m., chanting slogans, "We are not staying silent, we are not afraid, we don't obey," "Feminicides are political," "Not male justice but real justice."

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputies Oya Ersoy and Züleyha Gülüm, Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) Co-Chair Özlem Gümüştaş and Nimet Tanrıkulu, a women's rights defender from the 78ers Foundation were also among the crowd.

Women carried placards with the names of the killed women and trans woman Hande Kader. Some women wore clown costumes in the memory of Daniela Carrasco, a street artist from Chile who was killed after being arrested.

Extinction Rebellion members were also at the march, carrying placards that read, "There is no love in the air, there is CO2 in the air, there is violence in the air."

Press statement by women: We expand the fight in every breath

Allowing the women to walk for about 140 meters, the police stopped the group near Asmalı Mescit Street. Here, the women made a statement for the press, which briefly said the following:

"Güleda Cankel, Sule Çet, Ecem Balcı, Nadira Kadirova, Emine Bulut, Emine Nuyan, Müzeyyen Boylu, Kübra Aşkın, Ceren Damar, Didem Akay...

"Seeing a woman among social media tags tells about a casualty in any case. It either means that the woman is not alive or could not find justice despite being exposed to horrible violence. We are here for a world where names of women are in the news not because of their deaths but lives, not because of the violence they are subjected to but the dreams they fulfilled!

"We say on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, that we can't tolerate losing one more person!

"Because women are exposed to violence and killed every day. Those who stab, rape women are released right under our eyes. While all these are happening, not how to establish mechanisms to prevent violence but women's right to alimony and whether women can divorce or not are being debated! Not the voice of the killers, but the voice of women is being silenced.

"But our hope is in each other.

"Women strive every day for a non-violent life. Women are killed every day because they wanted to divorce, they said, 'No.' Women are killed every day because the İstanbul Convention and [Law No.] 6284 are not applied.

"Women are killed every day because prosecutors choose to judge not men who use violence but women's ways of life because courts find countless ways to acquit men. Women are subjected to sexual violence every day, where there is a mentality that sees nothing wrong with 15-year-old girls being married.

"Women are subjected to violence and killed every day because of the hate against their gender identity, sexual and romantic orientation, because their bodies and love are being tried to be shaped, because of various forms of transphobia and homophobia.

"And women make it to the news only when they are killed. But we are forced to breathe under violence and pressure, amid uncertainty, being exploited in every way, not knowing how will our tomorrow be.

"In every breath, we expand the fight. We join hands, imagining totally different lives that are less worrisome, freer, more equal, lives where nobody is subjected to violence because of their identity. We know that if we don't do this, nobody will do it for us. And we say altogether:

"We won't lose one more person. Long live women's solidarity!"

Police attacked while the women were dispersing

As the people began to disperse after the statement for the press, a small group attempted to cross the police barricade, which led the police officers to use tear gas and rubber bullets against the women.

Many women were affected by the police attack. Women left İstiklal Avenue, chanting slogans, after the police warned them to disperse. (EMK/EKN/VK)