‘Everyday is March 8, everyday is struggle’

"You can have your family, we will have our lives"

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Upon the call of  Ayvalık March 8 Women's Platform, women came together at Cumhuriyet Square in Turkey's western province of Balıkesir yesterday (March 8). Opening a banner that read, "Everyday is March 8, everyday is struggle," women chanted the slogans, "We don't hush, we don't fear, we don't obey" and "Long live women's solidarity."

Following the performance of performance artist İlayda Evgin with Gaye Su Akyol's song "Kendimin efendisiyim ben" (I am the master of myself), women danced and celebrated, chanting the slogans:

"Feminicides are political", "Shout so that everyone hear and male violence ends", "Our labor, body, identity is ours", "Enforce the convention, prevent the murder", "Parliament to duty, enforce the convention", Enforce the law, prevent violence", "We are not family, we are women; we revolt", "Let father, husband, bludgeon come; revolt and freedom just to spite it all..."

'There is gendercide in Turkey'

Zehra Tanrıverdi and Sevtap Oran read out the press statement on behalf of the women. The statement briefly read:

"Today is March 8, the women's day of unity, struggle and solidarity all over the world. We are here today to give voice from Ayvalık to the voices of millions of women filling the squares.

"Throughout the pandemic, we have been a remedy to one another with women's solidarity, we have got strength from one another, we have fostered women's solidarity. We have not been intimidated by captivation, strip search or male-state violence.

"As women struggling against all types of sieges in all aspects of life, we have not bowed down to any of these sieges imposed on us. In the face of exploitation and male violence, we have never given up defending our lives and rights, saying, 'İstanbul Convention saves lives.'

"300 women have been massacred with male violence in our country in the last year, the deaths of 171 women were registered as 'suspicious.' We are crying out loud that 'there is gendercide' in Turkey, where at least three women are killed per day.

'Enforce İstanbul Convention'

"It is seen that the human rights action plan, which disregards LGBT individuals, has five articles concerning women. However, these articles have already been indicated in the İstanbul Convention, which was signed by the same authority seven years ago.

"We, women, call out to lawmakers and law enforcement for yet another time: You don't have to discover women's rights again, enforce the İstanbul Convention, which is the Constitution of women.

Crimes against women, children

"Of the 711 perpetrators who inflicted violence on women in 2020, only 54 men were arrested. 250 thousand children have been abused in Turkey in the last 10 years. Since 2002, 440 thousand girls have given birth. In 2019, over 49 lawsuits were filed for 'crimes against sexual inviolability' and over 22 thousand of these lawsuits were for sexual abuse of children."

Demands

Concluding their remarks, women said, "We will not look down while the perpetrators of male violence are free outside and the male state draws the boundaries of the 'acceptable woman'! We will keep saying at every opportunity that we will follow our demands." 

They expressed the following demands:

1- Fully enforce the İstanbul Convention and the Law no. 6284, which protect women against violence.

2- Stop all types of pressure and discrimination against women and LGBTI+s.

3- Open an effective Violence Hotline that will work 24/7, at least one shelter for 100 thousand people and a women's solidarity house in every district.

4- Everyone must bear in mind that secularism is the red line of women. Don't dare to look crossed eyed at it, let alone destroying it.

5- Ensure equal representation in all authorities and decision mechanisms.

6- Starting from the local, end sexist and male statements in politics and media immediately. Impose sanctions on those making sexist statements through women's bodies regardless of their identity and political stance.

7- Take immediate steps, develop plans, projects and budgets to ensure gender equality in public and localities, starting from schools.

8- Instead of keeping women away from social life with the women's university project, pave the way for science and free and equal education with autonomous universities.

9- End all types of discrimination, flexible work, sexist division of labor and inequal payment in working life.

10- Put an immediate end to the practices preventing the exercise of "right to abortion". Ensure that all women are provided with safe and free abortion and paid leave during menstruation.

11- Implement policies that will provide child, patient and elderly care as a public service and relieve women of domestic work, starting from local administrations.

12- Open free neighborhood kindergartens for our children. Repeal the 4+4+4 education system, which severs girls' bonds with education and life and leads to an increase in child marriages.

(Gİ/EKN/SD)