‘Me too’ movement in Turkey’s literature: ‘May they lose sleep’

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After nearly 20 women announced on social media that writer Hasan Ali Toptaş harassed and sexually assaulted them, women have started exposing the harassment, sexual assault and mobbing of other men in Turkey's literary world as well as from other professions.

Women have also been compiling lists of male harassers and assaulters on social media, as in the case of the below Twitter user:

hasan ali toptaş, bora abdo, hüseyin kıran, metin üstündağ, refik tabakçı, fatih kutan. unuttuğum var mı?

— haziran (@haziraniniz) December 9, 2020

'You are never alone'

A social media user named Leyla posted the following message and called on women to share their own stories:

"Dear women, we have opened an email address where women who were subjected to the harassment and violence of influential men in literature, cinema and poetry and could not find the courage to voice them for reasons known by all can share their stories. So many emails have come to the [email protected] (May you lose sleep) that there are doctors, writers, academics, rappers, influencers among them... My dearest women, you are never alone and you will never walk alone!"

Statements by publishing houses

After women started exposing the harassment and sexual violence of men on social media, the İletişim Publishing House has released a statement about writer Baro Abdo. The publishing house has announced that it has terminated its business relations with Abdo after writer Aslı Tohumcu declared that Abdo had harassed her.

"We, as the İletişim Publishing, is on the side of our writers Aslı Tohumcu and Pelin Buzluk in the face of inhumane treatment, bullying and harassment that they were subjected to," the statement has read.

Saadet Özen, the Chief Editor of Everest Publishing House, has also made a statement on her social media account after the harassment of Hasan Ali Toptaş was exposed on social media. Özen has said, "To me, the statement of women is essential to make the victim's voice heard and to reveal and discuss harassment and pressure."

Everest also released a brief statement on social media today (December 10) and said that "it has parted its way with writer Hasan Ali Toptaş."

Doğan Kitap publishing has also shared a brief message on social media: "We are against all types of violence, harassment and discrimination targeting women, we condemn the perpetrators. We are always on the side of the efforts to eliminate such negative incidents in publishing world."

'Harassment in literature' statement by union

The Writers Syndicate of Turkey has also released a statement about the issue. "As in all other fields of life, harassment is a very frequently committed crime and, like everywhere else, women are more frequently subjected to harassment," the statement of the syndicate has read:

"We have been witnessing that harassment occurs in all processes and environments of literature in different forms: Sexual harassment, pressuring by asuming the role of power, disturbing, violating copyrights and similar other violations, making feel bad and worthless intentionally, humiliating and attempting to smear in social relations or social media...

"We emphasize that all types of behavior which is sexually explicit, involves physical and verbal attack and disturbs men and women through violence, threat and systematic humiliation by using titles such as writer, poet and publisher constitutes a crime and call on literary figures to get organized about it. The Writers Syndicate of Turkey provides lawyers to the writers subjected to harassment and offers material and immaterial support."

Concluding its statement, the syndicate has emphasized the importance of adding articles to the prize guidelines and copyright agreements for struggle against crimes of rape and harassment. "The awareness, power and organized behavior of women will be trailblazer in all fields," it has said.

What happened?

After one social media user exposed the harassment of writer Hasan Ali Toptaş, nearly 20 women followed suit and talked about the harassment and sexual assault that they were faced in the literary world.

Supporting a similar post by writer Pelin Buzluk, writer Aslı Tohumcu has also shared an incident of sexual assault that she was herself subjected to and announced that writer Bora Abdo harassed her. (EMK/SD)