Women March through İstiklal Avenue for March 8

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Women came together in front of the French Cultural Center in Beyoğlu district in İstanbul for the 16th Feminist Night March yesterday (March 8) at 7.30 p.m.

Fotoğraf: Hüseyin Aldemir

Police forces continued standing guard at Taksim Square and along İstiklal Avenue during the night march as they had done all through the day.

Despite the State of Emergency, pouring rain and the police officers keeping watch at every street corner, İstiklal Avenue witnessed the most crowded demonstration in the last years.

Women marched through İstiklal Avenue in the direction of Tünel Square. The press statement of women was also made at Tünel Square.

When the banner which read "Our Life, Our Revolt, Our Struggle: Feminism" reached Tünel Square, the other end of the cortege was near the starting point of the march.

When the March 8 statement of women was read out at Tünel Square, women at the back of the cortege were doing folk dances and keeping on chanting slogans.

At Tünel Square, the following statement was made:

"The history of women struggle that we know of is now more than a century old. If there is oppression, then the revolt continues. Although their names are beyond the scope of history, women have always resisted, they have always laid claim to their lives.

"Today, we, thousands of women here and millions of women all around the world stand and see. We see that what is before our eyes is the efforts of misogyny, racism and fascism.

"We are faced with a system, which constantly looks for a way to exploit our labor, our sexuality and our body by pushing all the care labor of the world on us, by trying to bring our fertility under control, by condemning us to unequal moral and material conditions, by acting as if there is a single sexual orientation and there are only two sexual identities, by inflicting violence on us to "bring us into line," by abusing children, by handing our lives over male-dominated and religious institutions, by drawing the boundaries themselves and determining when it is legitimate to violate these boundaries and by resorting to weapons when they cannot establish their authority. There is a male-dominated system which excludes women from decision making mechanisms and enforcing us to live a life that we do not want to live.

"It is very irrelevant to say 'Enough is enough.' Enough has been enough for a really long time now. Enough has been enough since the very beginning.

"Today, with feminism, we are resisting and struggling against a system which tries to discipline us with fear, war, sweet talk and family tales; today, we are revolting.

"We have started by dreaming of another world and we know that we can create this world together and with solidarity.

"Long live feminism, long live the feminist struggle!"

After the night watch, a party was organized at The Mekan in Beyoğlu. (HK/SD)